All At Once
by Psycho-Barbie16
Summary: Ivory McCambridge thought her powers could bring nothing but death and regrets, until she met two men who showed her that there was much more to being a mutant than hiding in the shadows. They led her on a path of freedom, brutality friendship, destruction, and Love. But she could handle it, because as she would soon find out she was Brave, and Strong and Broken All At Once.
1. Chapter 1

**_The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there? — Jack Kornfield_**

_"Where is she?"_

_"Come on out you little freak!"_

_"I think she's a witch!"_

_"Find her!" _

_"Find the witch!"_

_"Find the witch! Find the witch! Find the witch!" A chant started up among the children as they ran across the park to the woods beyond. _

_Ivory McCambridge had run into the woods to get away from the torturous children of her school. Throughout the week they would positively torture her during school. Pulling her black hair behind the teacher's back, tugging the chair out from underneath her when she was going to sit down then telling the teacher that she fell. At first they were torturing her, calling her a freak because of her different coloured eyes, one was forest green the other cerulean blue, 'heterochromia' is what the doctors said it was, but the kids at school didn't care about that. All they cared about was the fact that she was different from them. _

_Then she made the biggest mistake of her young life, there was a little potted plant on the window sill of their classroom that they were supposed to be taking care of. Something about teaching responsibility to a bunch of seven year olds, but Ivory was the only one that paid attention to it. For reasons she couldn't understand until now. The plant was dying because no one else bothered to take care of it, so Ivory reached out to pet it as if she was saying goodbye when something amazing happened. The withered plant started to glow and grow, lush green leaves taking over the browns and the plant was suddenly standing tall and alive like nothing happened. _

_Needless to say Ivory was shocked staring down at hands in disbelief when a gasp from the door caught her attention._

_"Everyone!" the little girl said running from the classroom, "Ivory's a freak! Guess what she did!"_

_That led to her entire class rushing into the room to see the plant for themselves, before they started pointed and jeering._

_"Freak!"_

_They chased her out of the classroom with the insulting taunts and into the words just beyond the playground._

_"Come on out Ivory." One of the bigger boys sing-songed much to the amusement of his peers._

_Ivory was hiding in a natural alcove in one of the trees a hand over her mouth holding her breath hoping that they would pass by her hiding place. Luck wasn't on her side._

_"I found her." One of the boys cried a meaty hand wrapping around her arm and pulling her from her hiding place despite her protests. _

_"Come on Ivory."_

_"Fight back freak."_

_Their voices blended into one as the pushed her around._

_"Stop." The black haired girl whispered._

_They didn't. _

_One of them pushed her so hard they she fell down to the ground, skinning her hands and knees. No one made a move to help her because of course they wouldn't, instead they pointed and laughed some more. _

_Ivory breathed deeply through her nose and got to her feet, the kid's laughter slowly began to taper off when the trees in the woods began to rustle. They went silent and took a few steps back when the tress started to shake almost violently._

_"Ivory?" One of the kids ask cautiously when she raised both her arms from her sides._

_"Let's get out of here!" Someone shouted and though the turned to run away they didn't made it very far when Ivory threw her arms forward and vines suddenly sprang from the trees wrapping around each of the children one by one pulling them off of their feet and into the air. They screamed in terror as the vines tightened around them to the point of pain._

_"Ivory!"_

_"Stop!"_

_"It hurts!"_

_"Help!"_

_"Help us!"_

_They children tangled up in the vines screamed and cried as the vines tightened to the point of excruciating pain. But she couldn't stop, she was hurting them but she couldn't stop, she didn't know how._

_"IVORY!"_

_The children screamed nearly in unison as several cracks were heard and they suddenly stopped, hanging limply from the vines they were tangled in._

_Ivory stood in shock as her arms lowered and the vines slowly slithered back into the trees, taking the children with them, but before they completely disappeared into nature a shrill scream was heard from behind her. She turned to see the teacher standing there with a hand clasped over her mouth and tears in her eyes._

_"Ivory? What did you do?" she questioned slowly lowering her hand and taking in the scene, the children now fully apart of the trees which stood tall once more as if nothing happened. "Ivory?" the teacher repeated, but Ivory couldn't answer because she didn't know what to say, she did not know what just happened. So instead she turned and ran, she ran straight through the woods, off the playground and out of the schoolyard. Running straight home._

* * *

_It usually took the bus about 15 minutes to get from Ivory's house to the school, so for the seven year old on foot it took nearly a half hour especially considering she was utterly exhausted from what had just happened at the school._

_"Momma?" Ivory cried bursting through the backdoor tears rolling down her cheeks. "Momma?" she called again being met with silence from the house._

_"Ivory?" her mother called from the kitchen and she let out a sigh of relief heading there only to be stopped in the doorway once she took a look at her mother's face._

_"Momma?" she questioned withering like a plant under the weight of the fierce glare directed towards her, the likes of which she'd never seen before on her mother._

_"Ivory Anne, what did you do?" Her mother questioned sounding terrified and disappointed at the same time._

_"I didn't mean to." Ivory said nearly trembling as she repeated it._

_"You're school called." Her mother said keeping a careful distance between them, "They told me what you did."_

_"It was an accident momma."_

_"Don't call me that." Her mother snapped, "No daughter of mine will be one of those things." She hissed the last word._

_"Momma?" she was crying again, terrified out of her mind if her mother was saying what she thought she was._

_"Get out." She hissed again._

_"What?"_

_"Get out!" she mother snapped throwing a bag at her, Ivory just barely managed to catch it before it hit her full on in her face. "And don't come back."_

_"But-"_

_"Get out!" her mother roared and Ivory jumped but slowly backed towards the door, taking one last look at her mother, heterochromia eyes filled with tears before taking off out the back door again and continuing to run._

* * *

_Ivory ran for days, she stopped, she rested, she cried then she ran some more. She did catch glimpses of the local newspapers and splashed across the front was the name of her school and the words '13 Children Dead, No Bodies Found'. She was sure her name was in there somewhere listed as a fugitive seeing as her teacher did see her, so she keep running._

_Until she simply couldn't run anymore, she was seven years old. She needed food, and sleep, neither of which she had gotten much of in the last few days, the bag her mother had thrown to her had clothes in it but that was it. Other than that she was left with the uniform on her back._

_Ivory ran to the edge of the city and found herself in front of a large brick building, she could hardly make out the words on the plaque outside the gate before she promptly passed out._

* * *

_When she woke it was to feeling of a warm wet cloth slowly stroking the side of her face, she slowly opened her eyes to find herself staring up at an unfamiliar brown ceiling. She heard soothing humming to her right at the person cleaning her face seemed quite content._

_"You're awake." The voice observed gently and Ivory sat up, regretting it a moment later when her head started to spin, "Be careful dear, you must be exhausted." Ivory whimpered when the cloth was dabbed against her head again, "There, there." The voice cooed, "You're alright, how do you feel?"_

_"Thirsty." Ivory croaked out and the voice hummed._

_"Well, I'm not surprised, let's get you a drink." The cloth left her forehead and Ivory blinked her bleary eyes coming into focus, taking in the sight of a well-worn kitchen and the person that belonged to the voice. It was a women, around her mother's age probably a bit older dressed in a long black rope and matching headpiece that had a white stripe along the front. She was a nun, Ivory realized when she turned back around, a glass of water in her hand and the rosary around her neck confirming Ivory's thoughts. "Here you go dear." She said handing her the glass and Ivory gulped it down._

_"Thank you."_

_"You're welcome dear." The Nun said kindly._

_"Where am I?"_

_"You're at Mother Mary's Home for Youth's, an orphanage dear." She explained._

_"How did I get here?"_

_"We found you outside, you looked positively exhausted. But given your last few days I could understand."_

_"You know me?" Ivory asked sitting up straighter preparing to run again if need be._

_"Yes I do," the nun said smiling sadly, "Unfortunately it's difficult not to know who you are my dear."_

_"I didn't mean to." Ivory pleaded ready to cry all over again, "It was an accident."_

_"I know dear, it's alright, you don't have to be afraid here."_

_"Really?"_

_"Really. And you can stay here as long as you'd like. You're safe."_

_"I'm not- I'm not a normal child."_

_"I know, I get that." The nun said tipping up her chin, "But God doesn't make mistakes my dear, not with you or any of the others like you."_

_And they Ivory was sopping all over again for a different reason now, collapsing into the nun's arms and sobbing into her shoulder. Finally she could breathe again._

* * *

Ivory stayed at the orphanage for the next thirteen years of her life, making her twenty years old now. Since she wasn't technically a ward of the state, she didn't have to leave when she turned eighteen, not that it would matter as she had nowhere to go. The mother that had kicked her out their house died a few years ago and she had no siblings, neither did her mother.

But that was alright, the people at the orphanage became her new family, much more loving and accepting than her old one. The children there, looked up to her, and the nun that found her, Sister Theodosia, became everything she could ever want in a mother, the rest of the nuns had also grown to care for her in different ways. Although Ivory could never see herself joining their fellowship she did respect it, and in turn they respected her decision.

It turns out Ivory couldn't have stumbled upon the orphanage at a better time, they were running low on food and the state was refusing to pay them, in order to provide at least somewhat for the children at the orphanage the nuns had planted a garden, but it was impossible to grow anything. That was until Ivory came along.

The twenty year old herself blossomed like a flower in spring, her curves rounding out once she hit puberty giving her an hourglass figure that was a bit heavier on top, she was about average height at five feet six inches, her thick hair jet black and reaching down to her waist, her heterochromia eyes still the most striking part about her.

Now she was in her room, the one at the very back of her building so she could overlook her garden, kneeling in front of her window and running her fingers over her plants that lined her window sill. When there was a knock at the door.

"Ivory," Sister Theodosia said poking her head into the room, "You have visitors."

Visitors? Ivory wondered, she was twenty years old, far too old to be adopted, but still stood up from when Sister Theodosia opened the door to allow her visitors to enter.

"Hello Ivory," The shorter man with the blue eyes said with a soft smile, "I'm Charles Xavier."

Charles stepped forward with an outstretched hand the same soft smile on his face while his companion closed the door behind him. Ivory was curious but not fearful of these men.

"Ivory McCambridge." She said shaking his hand.

"It's lovely to finally meet you." Charles said releasing her hand and Ivory furrowed her brow, what did her mean by finally? Ivory wondered and to her great surprise Charles smiled again, "All in good time." He said brightly and Ivory was only more confused. "Why don't we have a seat?" Charles offered and Ivory nodded taking a seat at her desk while, Charles sat on the edge of her twin bed and looking back at the other man by the door, "Erik, why don't you join us?"

The taller man came over to join them casually taking a seat next to Charles, "Erik Lehnsherr." He said politely inclining his head towards her.

"Ivory." She said nodding in response to the taller man, "So what brings you gentlemen to Mother Mary's? If you're looking to adopt there's a sweet little girl a few doors down who just turned four."

"And I'm sure someone will come along to offer her a lovely home, but that is not what we're here for. We're here for you Ivory."

"You're doctors?" She summarized for herself, that was the only other explanation she could think of, "Some wants to have me looked at?"

"No." Erik spat.

"Ivory, were working with a special division of the CIA." Charles finished.

"You're here to arrest me?" Ivory guessed again without a hint of fear, surprising them both, "Well, you took your time."

"We're not here to arrest you." Erik spoke and she looked at him, "We're here to recruit you, into a battle for our kind."

"Our?" Ivory repeated confused. Erik's lip twitched in what was almost a smile before he took his hand out from where it was resting in his pocket and lifted it, to her shock Ivory's metal chair she was sitting in began levitating a few inches off the ground. Erik gently lowered her back down looking quite pleased at the shock on her face.

"Heterochromia." Charles said once she was back on the floor, "Your eyes, one green, one blue very rare in most living things, you know what that is don't you. It's a mutation."

Ivory took a deep breath, "You move metal," she said nodding to Erik, "You were in my head," she said looking back to Charles, "I thought I was the only one."

Charles looked at her in sympathy, "I can assure you Ivory, you're not nearly as alone as you think you are." He placed a hand on her knee, "With our help, you can be doing so much more than tending to gardens."

"I've hurt people before."

"We've all done something." Erik said nonchalantly and she looked at him, "What matters is how you move on from it."

That seemed to be the last of their speech as they both stood Ivory following suit, "When you come to a decision I will know," Charles said tapping his temple, "We'll be by in the morning to pick you up."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Ivory said without looking back at them.

"Maybe you can't, but you won't know unless you join us." Erik answered then the door to her room opened and then closed signaling that they'd left her alone to ponder.

* * *

**And the next up in a long lone of plot bunnies that ran wild in my head until I write them is this lovely little X-Men story.**

**Partially written for one of my all time loyals **_Ivana Bocanegra, _**I say partially because I had this sort of idea in my head a while ago but my massive Steve/Aphrodite story has been taking up so much of my time, that I didn't have time to fully flesh out what I wanted. But since that story's on hold for now I had a lot of time to tackle those ideas that have taken up for to much time just being in my head. She gave me an awesome outline that I tweaked a few things here and there, but now here we are.**

**Hope you all enjoy.**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**

**Just FYI, I don't plan to make a habit of accepting requests of this nature to write a full blow story for one of my readers, but it just so happens that _Ivana_ knocked on the right door to reignite my interest in writing this story which I had tossed around in my head a while ago ****(Also she was relentlessly annoying in the best of ways)****. So I'm not saying it could happen, but throw some suggestions my way, we'll see what lands.**


	2. Chapter 2

Ivory stayed up most of the night thinking about Charles' offer, in the end the pros of going with them far outweighed the cons. For as much as she loved the orphanage, the nuns and all the children there, she knew that it was more than likely she would die there. In the dusty back room surrounded by her plants no doubt, and yesterday that wouldn't have seemed like such a bad thought. But now that she knew that there were others out there like her, people that would be willing to help her learn to control her gifts, how could she say no.

So she packed up her belongings that night and bright and early the next morning got dressed in a short green paisley patterned dress, with a brown jacket, brown ankle boots, her embroidered floral choker and gold cross necklace the nuns had given her for her sixteenth birthday and while she was preparing breakfast, told Sister Theodosia that she was leaving. The nun suspected as much after the men had left last night.

"I can't stay here, when there are more people like me out there. Not when I have a chance to learn and grow more than I ever could here." Ivory explained.

"I know," Sister Theodosia said surprising her, "Or at least I know I can't stop you. We were truly blessed the day you came to us."

"I was the one that was blessed, with a mother I didn't know that I needed."

Sister Theodosia's eyes watered, "What will we tell the little ones? What if you don't come back?"

"Who will I be if I stay?"

Theodosia took Ivory's hand in hers and wrapped them both around the rosary around her neck, "Be careful Ivory, and know that you will always have a home here, with us." She said before kissing her hand, "We will always be praying for you."

"Thank you." Ivory said before pulling the nun/her pseudo-mother into a hug one that she returned squeezing her tightly.

"Good luck getting pass the horde." Theodosia whispered into her ear and Ivory laughed as they pulled back. The horde was what they referred to as the youngest group of children in the orphanage all of whom had taken quite the shining to Ivory, the older ones liked her well enough but once the novelty of her multicolored eyes wore off they lost interest in her, but she was still a favourite amoung most of the children.

One little girl in particular held onto Ivory's leg long after the other children had departed from their group hug, "Amelia," Ivory sighed kneeling down to her level, "I have to go."

"Why?" Amelia pouted brown eyes shining, "Sister Theodosia said you could stay forever remember?"

"I know," Ivory told her glanced down the pathway to see Charles and Erik waiting leaning back against a sleek black car watching the interactions, "She's not making me leave, there's something I have to go do."

"You're gonna come back right?"

"I'm gonna come back," Ivory promised, "Just for you." She said pulling the little girl into a hug and behind her a bush grew and a branch extended a single carnation flower blossoming and falling into Ivory's waiting hand, when she pulled back she gave Amelia the flower and the little girl's eyes lit up accepting in. Ivory smiled and pressed her finger to her lips and made a shushing noise, Amelia nodded eagerly and Ivory winked before standing straight as the little girl ran back inside, grabbed her bags and headed down the pathway.

"Cute trick." Erik commented as she reached them at the end of the path and he chivalrously took her bags from her loading them into the trunk.

"She's a cute kid." Ivory responded sliding into the backseat after Charles opened the backdoor.

"Get comfortable," Charles said as he and Erik slid into the front seats, evidently Erik would be the one driving, as he shifted to start the car and lay his arm along the window Ivory noticed something peculiar on his arm, but decided not to question it now, "We've got a long drive ahead of us."

For the first hour or so, they all sat in comfortable silence watching the city pass by and fade to green landscapes that seemed to go on forever, so Ivory got bored leaning forward to fold her arms on the seat in front of her resting her head on them so she could speak to the two men.

"Last night, you said you were recruiting me for a battle." She spoke softly breaking the silence, Erik took his eyes of the road for a moment to glance at her then refocused while Charles gave her his full attention, "Against who?"

"A mutant named Sebastian Shaw." Erik answered not taking his eyes off the road though his grip around the wheel did tighten.

"Is he powerful?" Ivory questioned taking note of Erik's actions and reactions.

"Extremely." Charles answered.

"And what do you expect me to do, smoother him with roses?" Ivory teased and both men cracked a smile.

"Believe me Ivory, in time, you'll be able to do much more than that." Charles smiled with confidence and promise in his voice.

There was easy conversation between them from that point the remainder of the ride to the facility, once there Ivory climbed out and looked around the facility in awe.

"Impressed yet?" Erik's voice came from the side as he came around the car with her bag.

"Curious is the word I would go with." Ivory responded finding during the car ride that the back and forth with Erik was quite entertaining.

"And why is that?" Charles questioned.

"Curious as to why secret agencies like the CIA and this so called Division X insist on building their fortresses in the middle of nowhere. Makes it more of a target if you ask me." Ivory explained as they started walking towards the facility a dark haired woman seemed to be waiting outside to greet them.

"Not to worry Ivory," Erik said with a smirk, "If anyone where to attack us you have me to protect you."

"My hero," Ivory hummed, "If I ever need a can pressed or to reach something on a high shelf I'll be sure to give you a call."

Erik was amused by the young woman who seemed so shy when the first met her, but any response he might have had was cut off when the dark haired woman approached them.

"You're back." She said hiding a smile.

"We are," Charles said nodding gesturing back and forth between Ivory and the woman, "Ivory, this is Moira McTaggart. Moira this is Ivory McCambridge."

Moira extended a hand to her and Ivory accepted the woman shaking her hand enthusiastically, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Ivory responded looking to women over, "Are you a mutant too?"

"Me? No." Moira laughed, "Just mutant-friendly, I'm an agent with the CIA."

"Moira will show you to the others," Charles cut in politely, "Erik and I have some business to attend to."

"You're not coming with me?" Ivory said sounding frightened at the prospect and Charles was quite to calm her.

"You have absolutely nothing to worry about love, your amoung friend's now." She looked at Erik too and he gave an encouraging nod so she sighed and followed Agent McTaggart into the facility and down a few long hallways. Until they reached a set of double doors.

"Look, I don't want you to feel like you have a babysitter," Agent McTaggart said stopping outside the doors, "So whenever you're ready you can head in, but I promise their all good kids. Like Charles said, you're with friends now." She said placing a hand on Ivory's shoulder and nodding to her before turning and heading back down the hallway.

Truth be told Ivory was both relieved and frightened that the Agent had left her, she could understand her not wanting to seem like she needed a person to hold her hand through this. But Ivory didn't have much experience with people her age, talking with Charles and Erik was easy, for one it was only two of them and who knows how many more mutants were behind that door.

There was only one way to find out, Ivory thought to herself before taking a deep breath and pushing the doors open.

There only six people in the room much to Ivory's relief a brown-haired boy with glasses, a pretty blonde girl with long wavy curls, a handsome boy wearing a leather jacket, a redheaded curly-haired boy, another girl with exotic looking features, and finally a dark-skinned man wearing a blue sweater. They all looked to be around her age save for the red headed boy who looked like he was the youngest and the man with the dark skin who looked to be more around Charles and Erik's age.

They were all talking and laughing amongst themselves but it slowly faded out once Ivory entered the room, which didn't help her anxiety at all. She was just about to turn and run all the way back to the orphanage, when the dark-skinned guy threw his hands up.

"New recruit!" He yelled and the others quickly followed suit, throwing their arms up as well and cheering.

The blonde girl got up from the couch with a bright smile and all but bounced over to her, "I'm Raven," she said before pulling her into a hug which Ivory awkwardly returned, "Charles' sister, he told me you were coming." Ivory figured that he told her through his telepathy, "C'mon I'll get you something to drink, we're all just getting to know each other." Raven explained taking her hand and pulling her towards the couches.

She left her standing at the edge of the circle, Ivory wasn't sure where she should sit since she didn't know which seat was Raven's, until the boy with the blonde hair stood up from the end of the couch.

"You can- uh," he cleared his throat, "You can have my spot." He said and Ivory smiled sitting down on the edge of the couch next to the boy with glasses and across from the exotic looking girl and the dark man on the other couch.

"I'm Alex by the way." A deep voice said from her side and she turned to see that the boy that had given up his seat settling down in a chair he must have grabbed from one of the nearby tables.

"Ivory." She responded before Raven came back handing her a glass of cola and taking a seat between her and the boy with glasses.

Conversation started back up in the group like nothing had changed and in between it all they took turned introducing themselves to Ivory.

"We should think of codenames," Raven said suddenly, "We're government agents now, we should have secret codenames."

It had been a little over an hour since Ivory had joined the group, and suffice to say that Charles and Moira were right, it was easy to make friends with these people. She thought the only thing they would all have in common was the fact that they were mutants, but that wasn't the case at all. What really bonded them was that they were all outcasts in one way or another, and they could see now that, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

She could see herself getting along well with Raven moving forward, and surprisingly Alex as well. Over the hour the group had spent talking she and him were having their own quiet conversation, it was innocuous things like how old you were and where you grew up, but it was nice. It helped that he was quite handsome.

"I wanna be called Mystique,"

"Damn, I wanted to be called Mystique." The redheaded boy named Sean teased good-naturedly.

Raven laughed beside Ivory. "Well, tough. I called it." In a flash of blue ripples, her body changed into Sean's perfect doppelganger. Everyone jumped back, startled. "And I am way more mysterious than you." Her voice even sounded exactly like Sean's and everyone started clapping. Raven looked very pleased with herself as she transformed back into her blonde self.

"Darwin, what about you?" she asked.

Darwin, all eyes on him now, shrugged. "Well, uh, Darwin's already a nickname and, uh, you know, it sort of fit, adapt to survive and all." At the confused faces surrounding him he continued, "Check this out," he said, sighing as he stood up off the sofa and walked towards the fish tank by the wall.

He dipped his head into the water, and then gills—fish gills—sprouted from the sides of his head. Bubbles floated up from his nose as he breathed under water. Darwin flashed a smile at their direction as they applauded before pulled back up, shaking his head like a wet dog.

"Thank you, thank you," he said, smiling before pointing at Sean. "What about you?"

"I'm going to be," The redhead clasped his hands in front of him and pursed his lips, thinking. "Banshee."

"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Hank, the one in the glasses, asked.

Sean got off the couch, saying, "You might want to cover your ears."

Ivory put her hands over her ears and the others did the same as the teen squatted in front of one side of the table, his eyes squinting at the half filled glasses. He took a deep breath and held it in for a second before a shrill sound erupted from his mouth. Instead of the glasses breaking the window on the other side of the room shattered, and everyone stared for a moment before erupting in laughter, clapping.

"Your turn." Sean pointed at Angel, girl with the exotic features, as he took his seat again.

Angel pushed herself off the sofa and slid her jacket off. "Well, my uh stage name is Angel." Sean looked very pleased with the sight, as he whistled, Angel smirked before turning around; showing them all what they all thought was a tattoo on her back. "It kind of fits, but I've always liked the name Firefly." she said, as her tattoo peeled off her back and unfurled like wings, not like a butterfly's, but like a dragonfly's.

"You can fly?" Raven cried.

"Uh-huh." Angel said looking over her shoulder past her wings at the group.

"Why Firefly?" Ivory questioned and Angel smirked again.

"Because uh-" She turned to her right looking out the window and spit. They all watched as the ball of saliva turned into a flaming wad of acid. It hit the statue outside and turned its head into a fiery mess, melting it.

As the room erupted in applause, she turned to Hank. "What's your name?" she asked taking her seat.

Hank didn't seem at all comfortable with the attention shrinking in his seat a little.

"How about Big Foot?" Alex, suggested joking, but there was a harshness underneath it that made Hank shrink into himself a little more.

Raven glared at him "Well, you know what they say about guys with big feet," she pointed out, her voice dripping with innocence and sarcasm. "And yours are kind of small." She added making a show of leaning over to glance down at the blonde's feet.

"Alright now," Darwin said trying to keep the peace even though he sounded amused, "Ivory how about you?"

"Uh, I've never really given it much thought." She said honestly, "Maybe you guys could help me?" she finished before reaching out for the plants just outside of the shattered window to grow and vines slithered into the room like snakes crawling up the backs of the couches two in particular growing little flowers which she stuck into Raven and Angel's hair. The vines retreated as the group applauded and Ivory blushed.

"That was awesome."

"Thank you."

"How about Lotus?" Hank suggested from his spot, and Ivory turned to him.

"Hm?"

"It's a symbolic flower meaning strength and spirituality," the scientist explained, "I noticed your necklace." He said vaguely gesturing to her neck where her cross was laid.

"I like it." Ivory said nodding and Hank smiled looking pleased with himself. "Alex, what is your gift? What can you do?" she asked turning to the boy by her side.

"It's not, um," Alex trailed off, rubbing his head. "I just can't do it - Can't do it in here."

"Can you do it out there?" Darwin asked pointing to the broken window and the courtyard beyond.

"Why don't you just do it out there?" Angel echoed.

Alex looked like he was about to refuse again but everyone in the room started chanting his name, loudly and he relented standing and heading for the broken window much to the delight of the mutants.

He stepped over the broken shards of glass calling back over his shoulder, "Get down when I tell you."

"Get down when I tell you." Raven mocked as everyone stood up and followed him to the broken window their heads peeking out from behind a sidewall.

Alex positioned himself to the left of the corroded statue and glanced at them. "Get back!"

They all did as he said, staying behind the wall, but after a moment they peeked out again. Alex saw them and looked annoyed. "Get back," he repeated but this time none of them moved. He rolled his eyes, grumbling, "Whatever." He rubbed his hands together, and started twisting his body, resulting in multiple circles of red light pulsing from his body. It orbited around him for a second before flying forward two hitting the buildings on the other side of the yard, but one hit the previously corroded statue.

Now, it was split in half, on fire from where the circle of energy had hit it.

Everyone cheered and clapped at the display and Alex's previously annoyed expression had faded into a pleased one.

Moments after everyone's display of power, the most mutant party to ever exist, started. Angel turned the radio on and found a decent station turning the volume up to the loudest. Raven had taken Ivory by the hand and pulled her up onto the couch with her dancing and jumping up and down. Across the room Alex and Sean were hitting Darwin with any and everything they could find, but the adaptable mutant's skin only shifted to a dark coat of black and everything they hit him with just broke apart on contact.

"Come on! Harder!" He encouraged as Alex hit him with what looked like a chair leg.

Angel was flying around the room showing off her wings while Hank was hanging from the chandelier using just his feet. Everything was brought to an abrupt halt when a shrill voice sounded from outside the broken glass window.

"What are you doing?" Moira demanded, hands placed firmly on her hips Charles and Erik on either side of her, "Who destroyed the statue?" She demanded again, by then the music had stopped hand everyone had stopped whatever they were seeking looking like scolded children, Ivory hopped off the couch as did Raven but the blonde still looked high off energy.

"It was Alex," Hank murmured after he dropped himself from the ceiling.

"No. Havok. We have to call him Havok. That's his name now." Raven said smiling as she moved to the front of the group, 'And we were thinking, you should be Professor X, and you should be Magneto," she pointed to Charles and Erik.

"Exceptional," Erik scoffed sarcastically before he left, Moira following him.

"I expect more from you" Charles directed towards Raven before he too left, leaving the young mutants in awkward silence and Raven looking despondent as she dropped her hand.

* * *

**_Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi: _Lol I know right.**

_**Ivana Bocanegra**: _**I'm so happy that you liked how it turned out and all my little tweaks. The church thing happened kind of accidentally, my Religious upbringing slipping out a little, even though if we're technically speaking organized religion is kind of a cult. I wanted her to be accepted by possibly the last group of people you would ever expect to be willing to accept a mutant. You're reviews always make me so happy, love you right back Miss Bocangera.**

**As always let me know what you think, and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	3. Chapter 3

A disgruntled looking Agent led them from the trashed recreation room to where they would be spending the night, the girls down one hallway and the boys down another. Ivory went into the room that was dedicated as hers and cleaned up from the day changing into the pajama's she'd packed and climbed into bed, not expecting to get much sleep. She'd been at the orphanage for most of her life so she was used to the sounds that came along with the old house, to a point they lulled her to sleep. At the facility everything was so quiet. That made for quite a restless night for Ivory.

Eventually sleep did come to her and she woke up some time later her internal body clock telling her that it was morning. Waking up in a new place after eleven years of being in the same exact place was slightly disorienting, it took Ivory nearly twelve seconds to remember where she was and why the walls she was surrounded by were grey and not brown.

Sighing she climbed out of bed shivering at the cold tile under her feet before treading to the bathroom to brush her teeth, freshen up and get ready for the day. She got dressed in a long-sleeved short red flowy dress with flowers on it and a pair of black over the knees boots sliding in her accessories before heading out the room to find food.

The facility seemed to come alive during the day with agents in black suits moving up and down the halls, and Ivory retreated into herself keeping her head down and heading for the recreation room where she assumed breakfast would be, a quick peed out of a window at the sun told her that it was sometime after eight am, so she hoped that the room wouldn't be too full.

Luck was on her side it seemed as she entered the room and only found one table occupied by a group of agents who looked like they were just finishing up their food. On the other side of the room a blonde head of hair caught her attention, much to her relief. A familiar face.

She filled her plant with eggs, toast a few slices of fruit, grabbing a bottle of water before making her way over to him. He looked up as she approached hearing the sound of her footsteps then had to do a slight double-take before standing up from his seat, like a gentleman.

"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked nervously plucking her fingers on the edge of her tray.

"Please." He responded extending a hand to the other chair at the table next to his, Ivory sat down and slowly Alex retook his own seat.

There was an awkward silence between them for a moment as they both slowly continued to eat their food, then Alex broke it by clearing his throat slightly. "So, you're powers are really cool."

"Thanks," Ivory said smiling.

"How long have you known about them?"

"Since I was seven," Ivory responded and began telling him the less grim version of how her powers manifested, "I always knew that I loved nature, inside our backyard we had this huge oak tree that I would swing from every day. And in elementary school we had this class plant, every day someone was assigned to water it, teach kids about responsibility you know?" she asked and Alex nodded, "Well needless to say no one really cared about the plant except me, I didn't wanna see it die so I just," she waved her hand in a motion similar to the one she did when she was seven, "And suddenly it was alive again."

"How did your parents feel about your gift?"

"I never knew my father, but my mom. She wasn't happy," Ivory sighed biting her lip, "She said she didn't want a freak for a daughter, so she kicked me out."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I found a better home." She said smiling, "What about you? Your gift is pretty amazing."

Alex snorted, "Yeah, if you think destruction is amazing." She looked at him in confusion and he sighed before he explained, "See Charles and Erik didn't pick me up from my home or off the street like you guys, I was in jail."

"What?" Ivory gasped surprised, that was the last thing she expected to hear from the blonde, "Why?"

Alex sighed again and was about to continue explaining but there were interrupted by the rest of the young mutants appearing from seemingly out of nowhere and joining them at the table. A cheery Raven settled in next to Ivory chirping out a 'Good morning' as she did and the others gave similar greetings with varying degrees of enthusiasm, all save for Sean who looked dead on his feet and about two seconds away from face-planting into his eggs.

"We are Charles and Erik?" Ivory asked taking a look at the group then a glance around the room.

"They left last night for Russia." Hank replied looking up slightly from his plate.

"What?" Alex questioned.

"Right after they broke up the party." Raven all but spat.

"Do you know why?" Ivory questioned the blonde. "Did Charles tell you anything before they left?"

"Not a word." Raven scoffed bitterly.

From there the group of unlikely friends went out and explored the rest of the facility before retiring back to the renovated rec room as night started to fall outside. Ivory, Raven and Angel sat and one couch talking with Hank and Sean who sat on the opposite and at the back of the room Darwin and Alex were playing on the pinball machine. The ring of the bells where Alex was beating Darwin's high score were surprising pleasant background noise.

"Come on, man. You're killing me." Darwin groaned, glancing worriedly at the rising numbers on the board.

"Don't beat yourself up, I've had a lot of free time." Alex replied, smirking as he multiplied his score.

Curiously, Ivory left the group at the couch and made her way over to the back of the room where the other two boys were, Darwin noticed her first and offered her a blinding smile which she returned. Before announcing herself to an oblivious Alex who was so focused on the game.

"Hey."

Alex visibly jumped and fumbled with the controls on the game, cursing under his breath as he did before seeming to get himself and the game back under control. "Hey." he said glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"Can we help you?" Darwin asked politely.

"Can I play?"

"Sure."

Alex must have finished up his round finalizing his high score with a smug look towards Darwin before swapping places with Ivory and letting her stand in front of the machine while he stood on the other side.

"I'll be honest, I've never actually played before." She admitted sheepishly.

"Alex can teach you." Darwin immediately said with a smirk, while Alex looked at him with wide eyes over Ivory's head.

"Really?" She asked excitedly turning to him and he schooled his features into a neutral expression right away.

"Yeah," he said before clearing his throat, "Sure."

He carefully showed her how to use the game control which were quite simply to use, resting his hands over hers only for long enough to show her what to do before removing them, while Darwin watched from the side with his arms folded over his chest and a smug grin on his face. It took Ivory a few short minutes to get the hang of the game before she was playing all by herself and rapidly moving up the scoreboard.

"That's amazing." Alex gushed while Darwin continued to watch like he was observing an experiment, "You sure you've never played this before?"

"I'm positive." Ivory giggled through another shot, that bumped her straight to second place on the board, "Yes!" She cheered and the boy's did too, before she threw her arms around Alex's neck in a quick hug then quickly realizing what she was doing and releasing him turning back to the game, "I'm in second place." she bragged, "Sorry Darwin." She added seeing as she had knocked him down to third.

"No harm."

Alex cleared his throat, "Please note who is number one."

"Havok?" Darwin questioned seeing the name on the screen before Ivory could comment.

"Guilty." Alex said shrugging confidently.

"We'll see how long that lasts." Ivory said before turning back to the game.

"Oh, I didn't know the circus was in town!" A CIA agent called from outside the window halting their conversation for a moment, "Hey, come on honey, give us a little uh-" He said flapping his arms doing a terrible and offensive impression of Angel's wings. Angel glared at him shaking her head. "No? Come on, let's see the foot," the agent jeered lifting his own foot, his companion looking ashamed. Hank got up and walked over to the window, "There it is, come on Big Foot. Let's go," Hank saluted the man mockingly, as the curtains closed. "Hey, come on. Hey!" As Hank sat back down, the room fell silent, except for the pinging of the pinball machine.

"They're just guys being stupid," Raven said trying to comfort a visibly upset Angel.

"Guys being stupid I can handle. Okay, I've handled that my whole life!" she snapped slamming her cup down on the table. "But I'd rather a bunch of guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these ones stare at me."

"At us." Raven added sadly reaching out to place her hand over Angel's, a distant thumping noise was suddenly heard over the sounds of the pinball machine. Everyone froze when the sound was heard again.

"What was that?" Darwin muttered straightening up from where he was leaning over the machine watching Ivory decimate Alex's high score his grin beginning to shrink, his only response was more thumps that set the entire group on edge. "Something doesn't feel right." He added moving away from the pinball machine and nudging for the other two, to join him they shared an uneasy look but followed behind him, as the other rose up from the couch moving towards the glass window that Hank had closed only moments ago, which Darwin reopened.

Outside the window there was nothing, the courtyard was empty and there was no sign of whatever had been making the thumping.

Ivory looked up towards the night sky and the full moon noticing something strange casting a shadow in front of it, it looked like silhouettes.

"Someone, please tell me what that is?" she said shakily pointing up towards the moon and the others followed her gaze before suddenly one of the silhouettes disappeared and the other came plummeting down. It landed right in front of the window and the girls screamed everyone backing away, Ivory grabbing onto Alex's sleeve, as they realized it was the body of a CIA agent.

The lights on the roof of the facility suddenly flickered on and almost immediately more bodies started dropping from the sky. Guards rushed out of the buildings, positioning themselves in front of the window. "Get back! Get back! Do not leave that room, we are under attack!" A man shouted banging on the glass.

In a flash of flames a black vapor, a red man dressed well in a suit appeared who bore striking resemblance to what Ivory assumed the devil would look like if the nuns' stories were any indications, they all screamed for the agents to turn around. And they did staring in shock at the mutant for a second before firing at him, but he'd already disappeared.

The window shattered as a bullet hit it, and then ran to duck behind the sofa. Darwin stood closest to the edge, his arms stretched out to shield everyone from the bullets since he would be the only one who could take it. Out the other window on the opposite side of the facility a tornado appeared, tearing down everything in its path including the giant sphere that was Hank's Cerebro machine.

"Stay here, my ass!" Darwin shouted taking in all the destruction happening outside, "Let's go." He yelled standing from his crouched position forcing the others to do the same. They all ran from the room into the hallway outside, they continued running down the hallway until they were blocked by more guards.

"Get back!" the agents yelled at them stopping them from going any further.

"Let us through! We can help!" Darwin pleaded but went ignored as they were pushed back some more, then an explosion rocked the facility and they had no choice but to turn back to the room they came from. Raven was in hysterics screaming and crying as the tornado continued to destroy the grounds outside and the red man used a set a blades and his forked tail to kill all the guards.

Inside the tornado a man was being whirled around before he was finally thrown through the only remaining window Raven screamed again as everyone ducked when glass rained down.

The devil man stabbed the last agent and Raven whimpered, the tornado outside finally started to die down. A good looking Spanish man adjusted his suit stepping through the hole that once was a window, and the devil man, entered from the other side. The group of them huddled closer together Raven and Ivory being pushed to the back Raven held her hand over her mouth in shock and Ivory was being pulled back by Alex's hand on her wrist.

"Wait, wait! You want the mutants?" A voice cried from outside the doors. "They're right through that door! Just let us normal people go! We're no threa-" the voice was cut off by what sounded like a gunshot, and they were all visibly disappointed and disgusted at the man's pathetic attempt at selling them out.

A man wearing a strange looking helmet with a nice suit casually walked through the door closing it behind him. "Where is the telepath?" he asked his companions.

"Not here," The devil man responded, with a heavy accent.

"Too bad," The other man smiled. "Well, at least I can taking this silly thing off," he stated, pulling the helmet off and ran his fingers through his long hair, pushing it back into place. "Good evening," he addressed the group of young mutants. "My name's Sebastian Shaw. And I am not here to hurt you." So this was the powerful mutant that they were going to be going up against, Ivory thought to herself.

"Freeze!" a single agent said from the courtyard with his gun raised.

"Azazel?" Shaw lazily ordered.

The evil, apparently named Azazel, disappeared, appearing again outside, killing the man swiftly and was back inside in about four seconds.

Shaw turned back to the group smiling, "My friends," He took another step forward, handing his helmet to the Spanish man. "There's a revolution coming, when mankind discovers who we are, what we can do. Each of us will face a choice: be enslaved, or rise up to rule," His eyes traveled over the group stopping on Darwin for a moment. "Choose freely but know that if you are not with us then you are, by definition, against us. So, you can stay, fight for the people that hate and fear you. Or, you can join me, and live like kings," he looked to the boys, none of them attempting to make a move, then his gaze went to Angel, standing right in front of him. "And queens," He held his hand out to her and Angel took it with almost no hesitation.

"Angel?" Raven's voice dripped in disappointment.

"You kidding me?" Sean echoed also in disbelief.

Angel looked back, "Come on," she commanded, truly believing that they would follow her. "We don't belong here and that's nothing to be ashamed of,"

Darwin reached out to her, but Angel turned away, ignoring his hand.

"We have to do something," Raven insisted.

Darwin turned to look at Alex with a stern expression which Alex responded with a defiant look, they seemed to be having a silent conversation, then Darwin pushed Alex in the chest and Alex pushed him back then Darwin turned away.

"Stop. I'm coming with you," Darwin announced, stepping over what was left of the window. Angel smirked, clearly pleased someone else was joining them even Shaw seemed momentarily pleased.

Alex's hand slid down from Ivory's wrist to her hand squeezing once to get her attention, "Get down when I tell you." He told her seriously and she nodded.

"Good choice. So tell me about your mutation," Shaw said happily to Darwin.

"Well I adapt to survive," Darwin explained, as Alex lead them into the center of the room. "So I guess that means I'm coming with you," he finished.

Shaw nodded smiling, "I like that," he gestured for him to join Angel's side and Darwin did, taking her hand as Shaw moved to rejoin his group.

"Alex!" Darwin yelled, forming a rock solid barrier and dipping Angel to protect her. "Do it!"

"Get down!" Alex shouted, letting go of Ivory's hand and she quickly dove to the side with Raven, Hank and Sean, as Alex spun his body sending rings of energy, launching them at Shaw, Alex grinned momentarily before his face dropped as Shaw had somehow absorbed his energy.

"Protecting your fellow mutants? That's a noble gesture," Shaw said rolling his neck slightly after. Darwin got up, confused, and Angel quickly moved away from his the devil pulling her behind him and holding up his swords threateningly. "Feels good," Shaw shrugged his shoulders a little and let out a smirk. They came back out from behind the wall when it didn't sound like Shaw had been killed and watched in shock what happened next.

Darwin lunged for him aiming to throw a punch, but is quickly blocked, by Shaw's fist that looked like it had doubled in size. Shaw grabbed his mouth prying it open. "Adapt to this," Shaw whispered as he forced all of Alex's energy into Darwin's mouth. Shaw rejoined his group and they held onto each other's hands before they disappeared in a burst of red and black flames.

Darwin's body tried to find different ways to adapt, but it wasn't working. Ivory stepped up behind Alex taking his wrist as they watched Darwin turn to platinum, then rock as the plasma burnt within, the orange peeking out of the rock like lava until he turned to solid rock. Then he realized it just wasn't going to work. He turned to face the group and Alex stared back at him with a terrified expression as they all watched their new friend slowly die. Darwin looked over at Alex with black eyes, as he reached out, wordlessly and the stone started to break apart. The cracks in Darwin's form brightened, and then he exploded into only bits and pieces.

* * *

Surprisingly not every agent at the facility had been killed, they found out as a handful of agents came from seemingly out of nowhere, questioned them on what had just happened then urged them outside toward the front of the facility where they sat in silence on a set of stone benches. It was still dark out and the exhausting day had taken its toll on the young people who start to fall asleep despite the uncomfortable benches they were on.

Hank was leaning back against the stone was with his head falling back and Raven was rested up against his shoulder, both asleep. Ivory still hadn't adjusted to sleeping somewhere new, and now wouldn't get the chance too. But Sean didn't have that problem fast asleep with his head resting on her shoulder, but she didn't mind. The only person missing from their pathetic pity slumber party was Alex.

Ivory glanced around to find him sitting on a large piece of stone debris, away from the group but not too far, like he wanted to be alone but not really. Carefully lifting herself from the bench and rearranging Sean's head so that he could still rest somewhat comfortably, she made her way over to Alex.

He was looking down at his hands but looked up when she approached him, he wasn't crying but looked to be on the verge of.

"Hey," she whispered softly, "You okay?" she asked and he shook his head looking back at his fumbling fingers, "You wanna be alone?" she questioned and he shook his head again.

Ivory pulled herself up on the block beside him, she hesitated for a moment before wrapping her arm around his back.

"When I was," he paused clearing his throat leaning into her, "When I was in prison I asked them to put me in solitary confinement because of this same reason. I had a temper when I was young, and I couldn't always control it, almost killed my entire family because of it. I got into bad fight with my dad, about school or something stupid, I ran outside and," he paused again taking a breath, "It just shot out. The house caught on fire. They barely made it out. No one understood what had happened, they just knew it was my fault, so they locked me up. I begged them to put me in solitary so I couldn't hurt anyone. The one time I thought I could've done something good, I killed him."

"No you didn't." Ivory said immediately.

"You saw what happened Ivory."

"I did," she said lifting her head from his shoulder to look him in the eye, "I saw you doing what Darwin wanted. And you did the right thing. None of us could have known what was going to happen, what Shaw was capable of. It wasn't your fault, Shaw killed Darwin. Not you." She said sternly, his eyes bouncing back and forth between her multi-coloured ones, "Understand?"

Alex nodded shakily, "Yeah." He said before pulling her into a much needed hug. After a few seconds they pulled back and Ivory took his hand jumping down from the block and urging him to do the same, "C'mon." she said pulling him back towards where the others were still sleeping completely oblivious to the conversation that had just taken place, and they sat down on the uncomfortable bench resting their joined hands on the bench between them, and they just sat in silence watching the sun rise.

* * *

By the time morning had officially come neither Ivory nor Alex had slept but she did rest her head on his shoulder as exhaustion crept in. The others woke one by one and the agents that were still alive were bustling around the destroyed facility.

A familiar black car came into view coming to a stop in front of them, and the doors popped open Charles and Erik emerging from inside immediately rushing over, Agent McTaggart behind them.

"Raven!" Charles called, hurriedly making his way through the debris to pull his sister into a hug.

Erik came over to where Ivory and the boys were sitting, "Are you okay?" he questioned with concern and they nodded.

"We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately." Charles said firmly to the group.

"We're not going home," Sean protested.

"What?"

"He's not going back to prison." Ivory chimed in nodding towards Alex.

"He killed Darwin!" Alex snapped.

"All the more reason for you to leave," Charles insisted. "This is over."

Raven settled a hand on his shoulder, "Charles, Darwin is dead, and we can't even bury him," she said sadly and Alex looked down again, Ivory squeezed his hand.

Erik spoke up from the edge of the group, "We can avenge him."

Sean, Alex and Ivory looked at him with hopeful expressions at the thought.

"Erik, a word please," Charles sighed, pulling Erik out of earshot. The two had a heated discussion looking back at the group several times, before Charles sighed and turned walking back towards them. "We'll have to train," he announced. "All of us. Yes?"

"Yeah," Alex was the first to agree the others nodding.

"Well, we can't stay here," Hank pointed out. "I mean, even if they reopened the department, it's not safe," he sighed a sigh of defeat. "We've got nowhere to go,"

Charles thought for a moment before he smiled correcting Hank, "Yes, we do."

* * *

**_Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi: _Lol, yes she does.**

_**Ivana Bocanegra:** _**Why wait? Lol, trust me love her and Erik's relationship won't even consider veering into romantic territory, aww don't worry it won't nearly as slow as Aphrodite and Steve, that took conviction and patience that I no longer have so the burn won't be quite as slow this time around. Glad you like my explanation about the church. Bye Ivana.**

**_Sinner2016: _Thank you!**

_**Icespirit5:** _**Hi, happy your enjoying so far. I was scared that people wouldn't like the religious aspect I incorporated because for the most part (no shade, I'm Christian) we're not the most accepting people, so I'm happy so many of you are understanding why I chose to do it.**

**Alright folks, what kind of antics would you like to see Ivory and the gang get up to at the X mansion, I don't know the timeline between the time they arrive at the mansion and the beach fight on Cuba but in this story it'll be a while. Also what would you like to see happen during her training with Charles?**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	4. Chapter 4

Only Raven seemed to understand what Charles meant as she grinned and jumped in excitement, her bubbliness returning for the first time since that night. Everyone else was just confused, and remained that way even as they were horded into the back of a military truck, all the suitcases and luggage already there clearly Charles wasn't joking when he said that he was sending them all home.

The canopy roof protected them from the winds as the truck rolled on for what was sure to be a lengthy ride, so everyone tried to get comfortable in the truck. Raven had her head resting on Charles' shoulder as he talked to Moira, the two of them engaged in a spirited discussion. Sean looked bored out of his mind, staring down at the ground between his legs, and if Ivory craned her neck she could see him clicking his heels together trying to entertain himself as best he could. Alex wasn't fairing much better looking out the open back of the truck and counting how many trees he could see flying by, in his head he was also completely unaware that he was comparing the green landscape and the blue sky to Ivory's eyes. Charles new though, and smirked into his conversation. Erik was the epitome of cool calm collected sitting with his back perfectly straight, not seeming bothered at all by the rocking of the truck.

Beside her Hank was pouring over a large textbook that had illustrations of an airplane depicted all over it, that she couldn't understand if she tried, but what interested in why he seemed so interested in planes all of a sudden. She was looking in confusion at the book he was reading and happened to glance up to see Erik looking at her in curiosity, Ivory flushed and turned her attention to the back of the truck and the miles of green landscapes flying by.

After when felt like a couple of forever's, the truck finally rolled at a stop and Charles perked up immediately nudging a dozing Raven and the two of them were first out of the truck. The rest of them following groggily. Alex turned around to offer Ivory a hand down out of the truck which she gratefully accepted and they joined the group, only to be stopped short at the sight of an enormous mansion.

"This is yours?" Sean asked, gawking.

"No, it's ours." Charles responded, a small twinkle flashing in his eye as he looked back at them.

"Honestly Charles, I don't know how you did it, living with such hardship." Erik mumbled sarcastically, as he took in the sight.

Raven made her way from the back of the group making her way between Erik and Charles and standing by her brother's side. "Well, it was a hardship softened by me." She joked as Charles kissed her loving on the side of her head. She sighed obviously happy to be home. "Come on, time for the tour."

Raven led the charge to the large wooden doors and Charles pushed them to open with ease and the group was welcomed to the sight of a beautiful staircase and a hanging chandelier that was mesmerizing in its shininess. And Raven wasn't kidding when she talked about a tour. The mansion was enormous and they had only gotten through the west wing where the young mutants would be residing, before Charles gently told his sister that the rest of the house could be viewed after lunch.

Charles' housekeeper prepared a lovely lunch for them, and true to his word Charles allowed Raven to finish up her tour of the gigantic mansion, though with the absence of Charles and Erik.

Finally, mercifully Raven released the group from their impromptu tour and everyone retired to their rooms. Despite it being still relatively early, the night before no one had a very comfortable sleep so the pull was much too hard to ignore.

For the majority of them anyway, Ivory was still having trouble falling and staying asleep in a new place and found herself in the kitchen around 10 o'clock that night staring out the window and the moonlight she could see reflecting off the lake that was back there, and thinking about how this mansion could comfortably hold the kids from the orphanage a few times over. A sudden voice from behind interrupted her musings.

"Can't sleep?" Ivory jumped a little and turned to see Erik leaning against the doorway to the kitchen clad in pajama bottoms and a grey tank too, by far the most casual she'd seen him since they met.

"I never sleep well in new places." She replied honestly turning her attention back out the window flipping her long braid over her shoulder, "You?"

"Pretty much the same." He responded as she heard him move towards the cupboards opening them then the tinkling of glasses as he grabbed one of them, "Drink?"

He offered casually and Ivory turned around fully to see him dropping some ice cubes into two tumblers, "I'm twenty." She reminded him.

"People like us have had to grow up much faster than anticipated," he said pouring a generous amount of what she could only assume was whiskey into both glasses, "No pressure, but I won't tell if you won't." he teased holding out one of the glasses.

Ivory took it after a moment of hesitation giving it a curious sniff before taking a sip, Erik watched for her reaction to the drink and when it was nothing but a simple hum he seemed pleased.

"So, what's your story?" Ivory asked scooting around the counter and pulling herself to sit on top of it.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone has a story." Ivory explained.

"You first." Erik responded leaning back against the opposite counter.

"Well, I didn't know my father and my mother kicked me out when I was nine, the nuns found me and that was it, I've been living there ever since. Story's over." Ivory smirked taking another sip of her drink.

"Something tells me you're leaving a few things out." Erik smirked.

"I'm guessing your story starts with those numbers on your arm." She shot back nodding to where his arms were folded across his chest.

Erik stiffened but unfolded his arms looking down at the numbers inked onto his forearm. "Very perceptive." He hummed.

"Well when all the other kids started getting adopted and I didn't I learned to fade into the background," she explained leaning back on her hands, "People tend to say more when they think you're not listening, or looking." She added pointedly. "I'm guessing Shaw did that to you?"

"Shaw ripped my family apart," he said darkly, "I lived through the holocaust, my mother and I. When they tried to separate us, my powers went crazy. Shaw took us both when he found out what I was, then he gave me an ultimatum, he said either move this coin," As he spoke a single silver coin levitated out of his pocket and floated in the air between them, "Or he would kill my mother."

Ivory looked at how intently he was focused on the coin floating in the air and put two and two together, "You couldn't do it." She stated rather than asked plucking the coin from the air.

"So he shot her, right in front of me."

"And you've been following him all this time?" She questioned to which he nodded, "Are you going to kill him?"

"The first chance I get." He said with a nod, "I have to, for my mother."

"I killed a group of my classmates when I was seven," Ivory said finishing up her own story adding on the parts she had purposefully left out and Erik looked up, "I didn't mean to." She added shakily, "But they just wouldn't stop. You know when you're a kid, you think the whole world revolves around you. Until one day you realize that's not true. But when you're alone as a kid, the others see you as weak, and that's when the bad things happen." Tears were rolling down her face now as long repressed memories came to the surface, "I ran into the woods, and they followed me. I told them – I begged them to stop. They didn't. Then the trees they just reacted. Snatched them all up, then they were the ones begging. But I couldn't stop, I didn't know how. I could feel everything that they were feeling, I hated that feeling so much," she finally looked back at Erik and realized that as she spoke her hands hadn't stopped fiddling with his coin, and in his eyes she say sadness, and remorse and understanding, "How's that for a story?" she asked sarcastically tossing him back his coin which he caught deftly with one hand.

"Best one I've heard in some time." He shot back and Ivory huffed a laugh and wiped her face.

"I hate thinking about that." She said before hoping off of the counter, "I think I'm ready for bed, thank you for the drink, goodnight Erik."

"Ivy," he said grabbing her wrist before she could leave, "You don't need to be ashamed of what's happened in the past, all it did was prove that you're stronger than you thought. The world tried to break you and you didn't let it. You're like me."

"And what's that?"

"A survivor." He said simply but with vigor.

Ivory stared at the taller man taking in his words before nodding and surprising him, if the was he tensed up was any indication, by wrapping her arms around his waist in a hug. He tensed for a moment and Ivory wondered if he wasn't used to such contact and was about to pull away when he responded by gently wrapping his arms around her shoulders in return.

"You called me Ivy," Ivory mumbled into his shoulder.

"Sorry." Erik said quickly releasing her and taking a step back.

"It's alright, I've never had a nickname" Ivory told him while turning to leave the kitchen, "Goodnight, Erik."

* * *

After the heart-to-heart with the last person she would have been expecting to be so open about their life and past, Ivory made her was back up to her room and fell asleep much easier than her failed attempts before. Probably had something to do with the alcohol in her system making her feel all warm inside, but whatever it was she slept better than she had in the past two nights.

And the next morning she woke up feeling refreshed, but that's what a full night's rest would do for you, well a night's rest at least since she and Erik had been talking in the kitchen for longer than she realized having crawled into bed sometime around one in the morning. The clock on the wall across the room had the big hand on twelve and the little hand on nine. Hopefully she hadn't missed breakfast, Ivory thought to herself climbing out of the bed and grabbing some clothes to head into the bathroom.

She got dressed in a red crochet tank top and a pair of patterned shorts with brown sandals, since Charles had said that training wouldn't officially start until the following day giving the mutants some time to settle in fully and recuperate before the hard work began. Which they all appreciated.

When she rounded the corner to descend the staircase then down to the kitchen when she caught a certain metal-bender just at the bottom of the staircase.

"Erik." She called down to him and he paused turning to face her and waiting for her to finish coming down the stairs which she did in a rush.

"Good morning Ivy."

"Morning," she responded falling into step beside him, "I was hoping to catch you before we met up with the others."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just," she sighed stopping outside the doors to the dining room where conversations could be heard just beyond, "Could you maybe not tell the other about what we talked about last night?"

Erik furrowed his brow, "Ivy?" he seemed disappointed that she didn't want to embrace her homicidal past, perhaps not fully disappointed. But definitely confused.

"I know what you're gonna say. And I'm sure that Charles already knows, but I'll tell the others when I'm ready. Please?" She looked up at him with pleading eyes and he sighed before nodding.

"You have my word." He conceded.

"Thank you." Ivory said and he nodded again before pushing open the doors to the dining room and holding it open for her to slip inside and he followed behind.

A chorus of 'Good morning' greeted the pair as indeed everyone was already down there, but luckily it looked like breakfast had only just began so they quickly claimed their seats, Ivory being waved over enthusiastically by Raven and Erik took a seat next to Charles.

Ivory thanked her for holding a seat and when she asked her why, Raven responded with a mischievous smile.

"Us girls gotta stick together. Right?"

Ivory smiled, "Right." She said before grabbing her plate and helping herself to the spread of food all along the table.

"Everyone," Charles said form the head of the table bringing all conversations to a paused as they looked to him, "I want you to enjoy yourself today but I do have one request, please visit Hank's lab at some point today to give some blood sample. It would help immensely in your training."

There were various sounds of confirmation across the table and Charles nodded looking pleased as everyone's conversations picked up again.

"Hey," Raven whispered to Ivory leaning her head down to speak quietly to her so she did the same, "How about a tour of the house today?"

"I thought we did the tour yesterday?" Ivory responded speaking in hushed tones just like Raven was.

Raven scoffed, "Please this house is literally hundreds of years old. It's got a bunch of hidden nooks and crannies to explore. I already talked to the boys, their in. Except for Hank, he's got science stuff."

As she spoke Ivory looked across the table to Alex and Sean who were both looking back at them and nodding imploringly like they could hear the conversation happening. Maybe they couldn't hear it but if Raven said they knew about the secret tour already then it was likely that they already knew what the girls were whispering about too. So with that Ivory nodded as well, "Sure, sounds like fun."

* * *

**_Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi: _I think we all do.**

**_Ivana Bocanegra: _Lol, sex will come but probably not during this movie. Cuddles for sure though. I do hopefully want to cover up until Apocalypse, but since Alex was a part of the Vietnam War during Days of Future Past, it's highly unlikely he'll play a big role in that movie but I can definitely write Ivory in substantially. I don't plan on killing him in Apocalypse but I'll cross that bridge when I but it. I'll look into the video you mentioned too.**

**I know this chapter was kind of short, but since it's the start of exam season it's all I had in me. The next one will hopefully be longer.**

**Also to anyone who might be concerned, don't worry, there will be nothing romantic about Erik and Ivory's relationship. But I'm a sucker for a good Father-Daughter/Brother-Sister dynamic and I feel like Erik is the perfect candidate.**

**So next chapter is exploring the mansion, there will be flirting and a pool table involved. Let me know what else you would like to see happen.**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	5. Chapter 5

Raven wasn't joking when she said that there was still much of the mansion left to be explored she led the quartet of young mutants all through elaborate secret tunnels throughout the mansion and they all had a blast. The rooms didn't really led to anywhere special, there weren't any hidden rooms in between the walls of the mansion like one would expect but moving from room to room was done in about half the time thanks to the hidden tunnels.

"And here ends the tour." Raven said with a flourish throwing open the door to the last of the tunnels. 'Here' was the entertainment room they'd briefly glimpsed yesterday. That small peek seemed like it was intentional by Raven since she seemed extra excited to show it off.

On one side of room were a set of couches stationed around a television set, and behind them was a large bookcase. On the other side was a dart board on the wall, a bunch of games like checkers and chess on a shelf next to a four person table, and at the center of it all was a large pool table.

"Let's play," Raven announced bouncing over to the rack on the wall and grabbing a pool stick.

"Alright," Sean cheered following her over to the rack, "Should we do guys vs girls?" he asked with a smirk.

"I uh," Ivory spoke up nervously with her arms wrapped around herself, "I don't know how to play, I won't be much of a partner. You guys go ahead."

"No," Raven said almost pouting, "C'mon Ives you have to play with us," she begged and Ivory was about to make another excuse before the blonde suddenly perked up. "We can do teams, a guy and a girl. You can be with Alex." Raven said smiling brightly before all but shoving Ivory into Alex's arms.

Ivory caught herself before she slammed into him, still he put his hand on her back to help steady her. "Sorry," Ivory said as her face heated up stepping away from the blonde boy to put a few inches of space between them, "She stronger than she looks."

"I see that." Alex said hiding a small smile that would have given away the fact that he was watching their interaction, listening too, "So," he said offering her a pool stick, "Partner?"

She sighed but accepted the stick, "I really don't think I'm gonna be a great partner."

"Don't worry about it," Alex said easily shrugging off her concerns, "We'll just have fun."

And it was fun, turns out Sean was just as bad as Ivory was, and Raven and Alex were the pool sharks in the room. The two of them carried their respective teams to a tie. Sean missed his next shot and hung his head before cracking a self-depreciation joke and straightening up, as he had done after he had missed his previous shots. It was Ivory's turn and she was excited but scared at the same time, she hand missed a quarter of the shots she had taken and she didn't want to let Alex down, even though it was just a silly game.

Still she took a deep breath and moved closer to their side of the table, leaning over it and lining up her pool stick to the white que ball. She prayed silently that she'd sink this shot, before Alex cleared his throat behind her and she straightened glancing over her shoulder at him.

"Mind if I help?" he asked fidgeting a little but Ivory's nod assured him that it was okay and he leaned his stick against the wall behind him, "So, you gotta uh," he placed his hand on her back guiding her to lean over the edge of the table and he followed, his warm body laying out beside her, "Line up the shot," he said stretching out his arm until his big hand covered hers and his fingers rearranged hers around the pool stick.

"Hey," Sean squawked somewhere, but for some reason to the two of them he sounded distant. "That's not-" he was cut off by a smacking sound which must have come from Raven hitting him in the stomach if the rush of air that followed was any indication.

"Shush." Raven snapped.

Ivory had long since tuned them out, looking over her shoulder at Alex who was still leaning over her as he helpfully adjusted her body to sink what was hopefully the winning shot, he must've felt her eyes on him because he turned his head and his blue eyes locked onto her multicolored ones, his eyes danced back and forth between hers for a beat before he seemed to snap himself out of a daze and went back to instructing her on how to shot. His hand that had been resting on her hip squeezed once before moving to cover hers the bottom of the pool stick, "And follow through." He finished his instructions, his voice sounding deeper to her for some reason, and then they moved together, even though he did most of the work, pulling the stick back and pushing it followed quickly in one motion hitting the white ball dead center where it rushed into the black eight black pushing it into the corner pocket.

Ivory stood straight up with a wide smile and threw her arms around Alex's neck hugging him tightly, while Sean scoffed at losing and Raven squealed at something else while Alex hugged her back.

"We won." She cheered quietly pulling back slightly to look him in the eye again.

"Yeah," Alex said nodding voice still thick with his hands resting respectfully on her waist, "We did, I told you we had nothing to worry about."

Ivory tried to mimic his smirk from earlier but wasn't sure if she succeeded, "I guess you were right." Alex returned her smirk an suddenly his face was moving closer and she found herself leaning in as well, before they were interrupted by Sean.

"Rematch," he said loudly stomping around the table, causing them to spring apart, they'd forgotten they weren't alone, "I demand a rematch."

"Sean!" Raven snapped, " No rematches, at least not today," she sighed before looking at the clock on the wall, "Besides we all still need to go meet with Hank," she said before brightening up like she did at the start of the game right before she shoved Ivory into Alex's arms, "Ivory and I will go first." She announced before grabbing the dark haired girl by the arm to begin dragging her from the room.

"We will?" Ivory asked wearily not being a big fan of needles.

"Yes we will, now c'mon." Raven said effortlessly pulling Ivory to the door, the real one not the one that connected to the tunnel, and Ivory managed a weak 'See you later', to the boys over her shoulder before Raven yanked her completely from the room.

"Dibs man?" Sean questioned in the comfortable silence that followed once the girls left.

"What?" Alex responded not understanding what the ginger meant.

"You and Ivory?" Sean repeated nodding to the pool table clearly referring to their little moment, "Dibs?"

"That's gross man," Alex said scoffing, "She's a person, not the last toy on the playground."

"Point taken," Sean said shrugging, "But seriously man, man to man. You like her?"

Alex thought for a moment, even though the answer was obvious, "Yeah I do."

Sean smiled and it was genuine as he reached out to place a hand on Alex's shoulder, "Well my friend," then his smile turned mischievous, "You've got dibs." Sean said before turning and dashing out of the room, with Alex hot on his heels shouting playful insults at him.

* * *

Ivory sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth when the needle pierced her skin of her forearm, Hank whispered apologies as the vial began to fill with blood and Raven squeezed her other hand in comfort.

"You're doing great Ives." Raven said encouragingly.

"I guess I should have told you, I'm not the best with needles." Ivory responded glancing at the vial that seemed to be taking forever to fill with her blood before looking back at the beige wall she had been focusing on, "Or blood."

"It's alright Ivory," Hank said reassuringly, "Sorry," he added after Ivory winced when he pulled the needle out. "You're all set."

"Thanks. Hank." Ivory said as he placed a small bandaid on her inner forearm.

"Thank _you._" Hank connected, "Your mutation is very interesting, especially in how it might affect your eyes."

"My eyes?"

"Yeah," Hank said nodding looking excited, "Charles and I have a theory, that the color of your eyes could be a result of your mutation. Similar to how Raven's mutation affects her outward appearance."

"Cool." Ivory said nodding. As Hank started packing up and sanitizing things. "Don't you need to give blood?" She questioned gesturing to Raven and the table that Hank was cleaning off.

"No," Raven said shaking her head, "Hank already has my blood samples." She said suddenly sounding bashful, and a glance at Hank showed that he was getting flushed as well.

"Alright then." Ivory said nodding and getting down off the stool she was perched. "Lunch?"

"Sure." Raven chirped.

"Hank?" she offered to the shy scientist.

"No thank you." Hank said kindly rejecting the offer, "I'm gonna get to work on the blood samples. But if you guys see Alex and Sean please remind them that they need to come here too."

"No problem."

Raven one again led Ivory from the room and they started towards the kitchens, but as soon as they were out of earshot of the lab Ivory all but pounced on Raven.

"You like Hank." She whispered stressed to the blonde who just turned a bright shade of red, but didn't deny, "Oh my gosh that's adorable. You guys are such a cute couple."

"Woah calm down there Ives, we're not together like that." Raven said dismissively as they entered the kitchens and started grabbing items to make sandwiches.

"Well, why not?"

"He's just so shy," The blonde explained with a sigh, "Sometimes it's hard to figure out what he's feeling."

"Why don't you just ask him?" Ivory questioned innocently.

"Ask him?" Raven scoffed, "Ives do you know anything about how guys work."

"No."

"You can't just ask a guy if you like them, then they'll know that you like them."

"And that's bad?"

"Yes, as girls it's our job to play hard to get. And they guys job is to try to get us." Raven said like it was that simple, but she may as well have been speaking German to Ivory, "You understand."

"Not really." Ivory answered honestly and Raven sighed but smiled

"You have so much to learn hun," she said patting her shoulder, "Especially if you want to get with Alex." She added casually and Ivory choked on the bite her sandwich she had just taken her eyes widening, Raven laughed and reached over to pat her back.

"I – What? Alex?" Ivory stammered wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"Yes Alex. As in Alex Summers. You like him."

Ivory's face went up in flames, "I mean he's a really sweet guy, little bit of a hothead, he cam be a jerk, but he's so nice to me. Since the day we met. And he's really cute." Ivory gushed trailing off but snapped back when she noticed Raven staring at her with her head rested on her hands her eyes twinkling.

"Ivory's got a crush." She sang happily.

Ivory slumped in her chair and huffed out a noise similar to that of the air being let out of a balloon, "Alright maybe I do like him, but I'm not gonna do anything about it." She quickly added.

"Why not?" Raven asked curiously, funny how the tables turned like that, Ivory thought as she bit her lip and looked away from Raven's prying eyes, "Ivory, have you never had a boyfriend?"

"Before Charles and Erik, the only boys I talked to were, 12." She admitted dryly, "I've never even kissed a guy. Pathetic right?" she said shaking her head in embarrassment.

"No," Raven was quick to assure reaching out to place her hand on top of her friends, "I think it's cute. And if it helps, I think he likes you too."

"Why would he like me?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Raven gasped, "Ives, you're smart, nice, and if you don't mind me saying, a total babe. He'd be a fool not to."

"Thanks Raven."

"No problem." She said smiling brightly, "That's what friends are for."

Ivory smiled back, "Okay then as a friend, can I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"Next time you want to basically sell me off to Alex, don't." she said flatly and both girls giggled, "I'm serious, you're not nearly as subtle as you think."

"I thought I was being helpful." Raven argued playfully.

"You are, honest." Ivory said softly, "Truthfully, I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Well don't worry, I'll help you."

Both girls shared a soft smile and they stayed in the kitchen gossiping well into the night, ending up laying on top of the dining room table when dinner time room around, Charles scolded them but couldn't stop the small smile dancing on the edge of his lips.

After that everyone settled in for dinner, and somehow Ivory and Alex ended up next to each other, peeking across the table Ivory saw Raven hiding a mischievous smile, and next to her Alex was doing the same only he was glaring at Sean. Throughout dinner the two of them talked in hushed voices, only blushing a handful of times on Ivory's part and stammering twice on Alex's.

All in all, it was a great day. The next day, the same couldn't be said.

* * *

**_Iv_**_**ana Bocanegra**: _**Lol, thanks for the support hun. I'll look into the video when we get to that part of the story.**

**_Cassie-011: _Thank you! And there will be more of that to come in the near future.**

**Sorry for the long wait and short chapter folks, been a crazy last few weeks. But Ivory and Alex finally admitted their growing feeling, but not to each other. What do you think is going to happen next?**

**What would you like to see happen during the training montage? Both Alex's and Ivory's?**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning Ivory's eyes popped opened at 8:30 sharp. She laid there for a moment trying to figure out what jarred her from her rather restful sleep. She blinked and then realized that today was supposed to start training day, so she assumed that Charles must have sent a message via his telepathy so she unraveled her sheet from around her body and started climbing out of her large bed.

As she headed to the washroom to clean up she noticed a piece of paper resting just in front of her closed door, as if pushed underneath it from the outside. Curious she picked it up and read it over quickly, then following the notes instructions opened the door and sitting just outside of her door were a bundle of gray and a pair of white sneakers. Hearing a door open, Ivory looked up and the door across from her opened, and Alex stepped out looking down at his own bundle before looking up at her he gave her a half smile, clearly just having woken up, like her, which she returned.

Then he bent and picked up his clothes and Ivory's eyes widened when he straightened up, her mouth hung open and he went to give her another smile, but his expression morphed into confusion at the look on her face. Before he could open his mouth question her expression she had already clutched her clothes to her chest and scurried back into her room closing the door behind her and leaning back against it as she tried to control the blush crawling up her neck. With the image of a shirtless Alex Summers burned completely into her retinas, Ivory sighed and went to go and splash some cold water on her face and get dressed for the day ahead.

_So many abs._

* * *

Charles told everyone during breakfast that the next few days would be spent with everyone doing individual training with him so that he could get a feel for each of their powers then further develop individual training regimes for them.

Currently, Charles was leading Ivory out of the mansion into its sprawling backyard casually walking with his hands in his pockets as he spoke to her about her mutation.

"You see, Ivory nature is unique. And like most living things it tends to have a mind of its own. Growing and flourishing, often without interference. Your mutation, is to change that."

"When you say it like that, you make it sound so easy."

Charles smiled, "I already know how well you control your powers Ivory, and that's quite condemnable. But now you'll learn to enhance them, expand them." He stopped them in front of a large tree, "This tree was planted by my grandfather many years ago, I daresay that it's my favourite tree. But as you can see its years are starting to show." Ivory hummed, "Why don't you give it a go?"

"Really?"

Charles nodded kindly with an expectant look. Ivory nodded as well and took a breath, before holding out her hands and focusing her powers on the tree she slowly let out the breath she took in and as she did, the brittle cracked looking trunk of the tree slowly began to expand, the dreary branches elongating and the leaves turning bright green again.

The tree was almost fully restored when suddenly Ivory began to have flashbacks of what happened when she was a child, hers hands shook then her concentration broke, before she let out a sob and dropped down to her knees covering her face with her hands and trying to take deep breaths in and out.

In a second Charles was there down on a knee by her side and running a soothing hand up and down her back.

"There, there. It's alright my dear. Deep breaths." He cooed.

Ivory sighed and lowered her hands looking up at the tall tree, "I've haven't done something that big in a long time." She lamented with a sniffle.

"I can imagine. Ivory," he said sternly but still kind, prompting her to look over at him, "You must have more faith in your abilities, you can't keep letting your fears control you."

She smiled without humor shaking her head, "You wouldn't be saying that if you knew what I've done."

Charles hummed, "Will you let me?" he requested.

Ivory sighed and thought it over, but nodded eventually. If she was going to trust Charles to train her properly then he deserved to know everything. Charles looked intrigued as he slowly brought his fingers to his temple, as if giving her time to change her mind, she didn't she he carefully delved into her head.

Ivory felt the unfamiliar fluttering sensation in her mind, but did her best to stay calm and keep herself relax as she could feel Charles gently sorting through her memories searching for the one that was the source of her breakdown. When he found it he paused letting the memory and the emotions wash over him. She closed her eyes as she was forced to relive that horrendous memory yet again, this was different that just telling Erik what had happened, now she was seeing at all once again and it was just as awful as she remembered.

After what seemed like a lifetime of Ivory reliving the moment she killed her classmates, Charles slowly slipped from inside her mind and she opened her eyes to see him looking at her with sadness and utter regret.

"Ivory-"

"I don't want your pity." She snapped cutting him off and standing up, he was quick to follow suit and slid in front of her when she started to make her way back to the mansion.

"I'm sorry you had to experience that, no child should have to go through what you did, but Ivory," he continued placing a hand on her shoulder, "I will help you get past your fears, and you will learn to control it. I promise."

Ivory looked into his blue eyes and saw nothing but hope and honesty, then she nodded, "Alright." She said before sniffling again, "Can I go?" she asked shyly.

"Of course dear."

Ivory brushed past him, quickly making her way back to the mansion, barely making it past the threshold before the tears came, she ignored the group sitting in the living room and the calls of her name as she made a dash up the stairs.

Meanwhile in the living room the group of mutants and a CIA agent sat and stood confused for a moment, before seemingly everyone jumped into action at once. Raven was the one who called Ivory's name first so she was the first one to try and ran up the stairs after her friend followed by Alex, but it was Erik who breezed past both of them, "Ivy!" he called worriedly, taking the stairs two at a time as Charles came back through the front door.

"Don't," he said sternly stopping the remaining mutants in their pursuit, "Let Erik talk to her." He continued calmly closing the door behind him, the young mutants hesitated but ultimately nodded and followed the professor back into the living room.

Charles knew that Erik would be best suited to talk to Ivory at this time, since it seemed he was the only other person that knew of her past, as the accidental glimpse into that particular memory had shown him. And he trusted that Erik would be able to provide her the comfort she needed right now.

* * *

Despite his mad dash up the stairs Erik composed himself as he came to a stop outside of Ivy's door, he was without a doubt concerned for his young friend, but could hazard a guess as to why she had come back sobbing from her session with Charles and could only assume that right now she wouldn't want to rehash that particular memory a third time in just a few days.

"Ivy?" He called softly knocking on the door.

"Come in." a timid voice called from the other side, slowly Erik pushed the door open and peered inside Ivy was sitting on her bed Indian style twirling her fingers around each other, "Charles knows." She said simply.

"I figured as much." Erik responded softly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. "How do you feel?" he questioned taking a seat on the edge of the bed next to her.

"To be honest, I kind of hate myself right now." She answered with a mirthless laugh.

"That's not true."

"I hate what I did." She lamented.

"As you should." He agreed before reaching out to place a hand on her knee and shake her leg, "Ivy look at me," she rolled her neck to the side to lock gazes with him, "Do you think that anyone here is going to judge you, or treat you any different because of what you've done?"

She didn't hesitate, "No."

"Then why are you so afraid?"

"I'm afraid of doing it again." She admitted, "I don't wanna hurt people that I care about."

"You won't." Erik said with such conviction that she almost believed him.

"How do you know that?" she challenged.

"Because you just said that you don't want too." He pointed out with a hint of a smirk forming, "And I think most of the people here would be rather hard to kill."

A real smile tugged at Ivy's lips, "Do you think I should tell them?"

"I think you should do whatever you think is best." Erik responded cryptically.

Ivy snorted, "Thanks."

"You're welcome, now I've got just the thing to cheer you up." Erik said patting his thighs and standing up.

"What is it?"

"Charles seems to think that Sean's screams have the ability to make him fly." He explained offering his hand, "They're going to test it today."

"How?"

"Throwing him out of a window."

Ivy's eyes widened in amusement, before quickly standing and taking Erik's offered hand and letting him lead her from her room and down to Hank's lab. They arrived just in time to see Charles and Hank strapping Sean into black and yellows striped wings, the ginger glancing back at the wings nervously before questioning Hank.

"And you're sure that this will work?" he asked skeptically.

"Anything's possible," Hank answered with a shrug, clearly not noticing the look of increasing panic appearing on Sean. Hank continued talking, regardless. "I based the design on-"

Charles however did notice the look of panic on Sean's face and cut Hank off entirely, "Hank, stop talking," Charles commanded, as he finished securing Sean and gave him an encouraging pat on the back, "Come on," he said, leading Sean to the windowsill.

"Oh this is going to be beautiful." Ivory mumbled to Erik as they took up the other window.

Sean dragged his feet along with Charles and Hank as they made their way to the window the he would be jumping out of, until he jolted back like something frightened him.

"I trusted Hank with something far more serious than this. You'll be fine," Raven's reassuring voice stated, sliding the window open.

Raven joined Ivory and Erik at the other window followed by Alex who just entered the room, Raven leaned up against the window next to Erik leaving Alex to lean over Ivory's back in order to see out of the window, a fact that both of them were acutely aware of and did their best to temper down their blushes. But if the look on Raven's face was anything to go by that was exactly what she was hoping for.

Erik though was less than impressed, though he did hide his disdain from Ivy.

Sean swallowed nervously as he sat on the ledge, looking down at the green hedge below, "Promise me one thing," he began, swallowing nervously again as he turned to look at Charles. "When I die jumping out this window, you gotta bury me in this."

"Pull yourself together, it's only one story," the telepath stated, looking down at the ground before returning his gaze to Sean.

"I can still break an ankle or something," Sean shot back sarcastically.

"Yes you could," Charles before agreed quickly moving on, "Now, remember. Scream as hard as you can,"

"You need the sound waves to be supersonic. Catch them at the right angle and they should carry you," Hank added to Charles's explanation, but it did nothing to quell Sean's fears.

"They should carry me. That's reassuring," the ginger huffed out.

"Good luck and don't forget to scream," Charles reminded him, patting his back.

Hank and Charles moved away from the window. Sean looked over at the other group for some encouragement but was met with amused faces instead. So he took a deep breath, made a cross over his chest and then spread his arms and leaned off of the windowsill only to let out a pitiful scream that was more of a squawk than anything and face plant into the bushes. The four mutants in the window burst into laughter at the sight of the Sean-shaped indent in the bush, even Charles looked amused, but Hank looked disappointed that his device didn't work.

"You're alright," Charles shouted down to Sean before, ducking his head back inside.

Erik was right, Ivory thought to herself, that did make her feel better.

* * *

"What's with the family meeting?" Sean questioned dropping down into one of the plush couches in the entertainment room later that night, holding a bag of frozen peas to the side of his head. Ivory had asked all her friends after dinner to meet her, so she could tell them about the reasons behind her breakdown.

"I need to tell you guys something." Ivory responded.

"What's wrong?" Raven asked immediately, sounding concerned.

"Nothing's really wrong exactly." Ivory said taking a breath in.

"It have anything to do with why you came back to the mansion crying earlier?" Sean asked bluntly and straight to the point receiving a swat in the stomach from Alex for it, but Ivory only smiled.

"Actually it does." She told them and they all quieted down at her admission, but Ivory didn't mind, in fact she was happy that she actually felt relaxed enough to confide in her friends like this, "I told Alex when I was seven I got my powers," she said glancing at the couch across from her where the blonde sat, "But I didn't tell him the full story." And with that, she launched into the _full _story of how her powers manifested, she shed a tear or two, but wasn't full on sobbing like she had been previous times.

Ivory had a feeling that she wouldn't ever tell the story of how she accidentally killed a group of her classmates without crying, but she did feel better about telling her friends, of her past. It was a burden she no longer had to bear.

"Now, I'm just a mess." Ivory finished with a pathetic sniffle. She did peek up to gauge her friend's reactions. Raven was beside her and had taken her hand halfway, through her story, had tears shining in her own eyes, Hank who was sitting in the arm chair with his head on his fist looked a mixture of disbelieving and sad, Sean was shocked and Alex was the only one who seemed like he understood what she was feeling.

"You're not a mess Ivory." Raven said squeezing her friend's hand, "You were a scared kid, who didn't know any better. I'm sure all of us know what that was like." She added to be met with various sounds of agreement from the boys. "Charles isn't my real brother." Raven admitted.

"What?"

The blonde nodded, "I was probably around the same age that you were when I came to the mansion, looking for food." Raven went on to explain how she had turned herself into the mirror image of Charles' mother, only for the young genius to figure out her rouse right away and call her out on it, "He was one of the only people who accepted me for what I really looked like."

"What do you mean?"

Raven huffed out a breath blowing her bangs, before blue scales rippled over her skin before they took over her body completely, and the blonde bombshell transformed into a scaly blue women with fiery red hair and yellow eyes.

"Wow." Ivory gasped, "Raven that's awesome." The blue skinned mutants smiled before changing back into the blonde they'd come to know.

From there it seemed like it was share-circle time, as the boy's each took turns telling the story of how they came into their mutations. Alex's story, like hers, was rather sad though with considerably less death involved, while Sean's was more lighthearted confessing that he didn't really have a problem with his mutation from a young age, even discovering if it had been an accident, it was a fun one. While Hank confessed that his family only recently learned about his mutation a few years ago, stating that he hid it from them in fear of being ridiculed, and bullied. Which was the driving force behind his attempt at creating a serum that would his the physical effects of his mutation, both his and Raven's apparently.

Once everyone had finished their story-time Sean blow out a loud breath, "This is not how I imagines a girl's sleepover to be." He joked breaking the heavy atmosphere and getting everyone to laugh successfully.

"Oh Sean," Ivory cooed, "You've got it all wrong, first we bare our souls," she said reaching back and grabbing a throw pillow off the couch, "Then we have the pillow fight." With the last word she launched the pillow at Sean's head, and everyone sprung into action snatching pillows up off the couch and going to town on each other.

Even with the heavy confessions moments ago, the atmosphere within their group changed noticeably, now that everyone was aware of each other's darkest secrets, it seemed to have made them closer. Well as close as a group of kids could be while currently trying to behead one another with couch cushions. But regardless, the dynamics between them would be forever changed.

* * *

**_Ivana Bocanegra: _I could never forget about you guy's. Yes I did see Endgame, yes she was awesome in it.**

**_AlexisDumbee: _Welcome and thank you so much! –sighs- Kids man, what can you do?**

**Not a lot of Ivory/Alex development in this chapter but I promised there with be in the next one. Which I'd love to hear what you guys think should happen as training continues?**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	7. Chapter 7

**The beginning of this chapter kind of jumps all over the place, but I really couldn't think of how to write in the style of the training scenes from First Class other than doing it like this, don't worry though, things slow down towards the end.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

"Charles wishes me to train all of you in hand to hand combat," Erik's slightly accented voice drawled, as he stood in front of the line of young mutants with his arms folded across his broad chest, his stance telling them that he was less than pleased with the task assigned to him, "In the event that you should find yourself in a situation where your powers may fail you. He believes that you should be prepared for anything."

"And what do you believe?" Ivory asked the question that was on everyone's mind. Most of the others were still intimidated by the older metal-bender, but not Ivory, she saw a side of Erik that the others probably wouldn't ever see so she had long since stopped being intimidated by him. Although, now that she thought about it, she never had been to begin with.

Erik's lips twitched like he wanted to smile at her calling him out, "I believe that if your powers fail you at the wrong time then it's your problem."

"Something tells me you don't want to do this." Sean drawled and the others snickered, just because they were intimidated by the older mutant didn't been that he was immune to the immature banter of the young mutants.

Surprisingly Erik actually smiled as he stepped closer to Sean and held out his hand to the ginger, the redhead in question gave his group of friends a smug smile as he reached out and shook Erik's hand, then Erik's smile turned predatory and he twisted Sean's wrist turning quickly and pulling Sean's arm over his shoulder flipping him to the ground. There was a quick bark of laughter from the group that settled when Erik but his foot on top of Sean's chest and adjusted his sleeveless shirt while the ginger groaned in pain.

"Anymore snide comments?" Erik questioned the standing mutants and he got no response, "Good, then let's get started." Good-naturedly Erik offered another hand down to Sean, and with only slight hesitation the ginger took his hand for the second time in a few minutes and Erik pulled the boy back to his feet patting him on the back a few times while he rejoined the others in line.

"Who's first?"

* * *

"Are you really training me? Or am I your personal gardener?" Ivory teased Charles after he had her restore the life of yet another plant, seems Charles didn't exactly have what was known as a green thumb when it came to the gardens around his home, as a result most of them were either dead, or dying.

"I'll admit it is nice having you around, these grounds haven't looked this nice in quite some time." Charles shot right back. "How about something a little more challenging?"

"What did you have in mind?"

* * *

"Who here thinks they know how to throw a punch?" Unsurprisingly all the young mutants raised their hands, a punch seemed so simple, "Who here has actually thrown a punch?" Ivory and Hank lowered their hands, Erik nodded and hummed, "Who has broken their thumb throwing a punch?" Raven lowered her hand as did Sean after a few short seconds leaving only Alex with his hand raised, Erik nodded like he expected as much. "Good, Ivy come join me. The rest of you pair up."

Erik instructed and the young mutants quickly moved to do as he asked, Ivory approached him while Alex and Sean turned to face each other, then Raven and Hank did the same.

"Are you right or left handed?" Erik questioned reaching out for her hands.

"Left." Ivory responded, 'Southpaw' she heard Sean mock and she made to sneer at him but a slight tug on her hands stopped her, he told her to make a fist which she did only feeling a little foolish as Erik held her hand up for the other's to see as he rearranged her fingers.

"Don't tuck your thumb into your hand when you curl into a fist, quickest way to a broken thumb." He moved her thumb so that it instead rested outside of her hand just along her knuckles, "You have to know where to hit someone to cause the most damage, aim to high," he brought her now corrected fist just in front of his forehead, "You're hitting a brick wall, aim to low," he dropped her hand to just above his chin, "It's about the same thing, and you risk cutting your knuckle open on a tooth. Aim for the nose or the eyes, you can do the most damage the quickest that way." He finished releasing her hand, "And if you really want to go for the lethal blow, the throat will do the trick."

Just as quickly as he had dropped her hand Erik lunged for her dipping her over his shoulder and picking her up before tackling her back down to the mat, none of what he did actually hurt her and the gasp she let out was more of surprise than anything.

"I wasn't ready." She whined and Erik smirked.

"Rule number one," he said before glancing up at the others, "Always be ready."

* * *

"Normally I would be against performing such acts, but seen as we can go to war any day now, it would be foolish of you not to learn." Charles said half to himself, half to Ivory as he walked back towards her from depositing a mannequin about 50 feet away from where they now stood.

"Learn what?"

"Defensive measures." Charles said simply glancing at her from the corner of his eye, "Attack it."

Ivory paled, "I beg your pardon?"

"Trust me," Charles said instantly placing a calming hand on her shoulder, "You're in full control now."

She nodded and focused on her powers again, not wanting to conjure up images of what vines could do, she would probably never even think about using those ago, instead she just let her powers wash over her entirely to see what would happen.

And what happened was the dirt slowly began to shake and rise, then barks of the tree began to peel off from the base, as leaves rained down, all them reshaping into spike like, or perhaps thorn like was more appropriate, shape and form in a tiny cyclone in front of them before she thrust her arms forward and the thorns flew, impaling the mannequin before it exploded and the wood debris from the mannequin rained down.

Charles covered his eyes slightly from the initial blast then slowly lowered his arm from his eyes looking at the remnants of the mannequin, there wasn't much, "Well done my dear, well done." He congratulated patting her on the back.

* * *

Sean groaned as he hit the mat of the training room floor "Rule number two," Erik drawled walking around the pair that was Sean and Alex, "Never turn your back on your opponent." He finished sarcastically as Sean swung out his leg and tripped Alex down to the made, Erik nodded approvingly.

* * *

The group of young mutants all laid around the living room in various positions either laying on the floor or lounging on the couches, all with sore bodies and aching muscles covering in ice packs and other various frozen food stuffs that were kept in the freezer of the Xavier's mansion. Erik didn't let up in today's training session in the least, not that the past month he had been particularly easy on them in the slightest.

"Everything hurts." Sean complained from his face down position in the carpet having most of his ice packs spread out along his back. He ended up on his back courtesy of Erik the most out of anyone because the poor redhead just didn't know how to keep his mouth shut. His proclamation was met with various sounds of agreement.

"I didn't know my body could hurt in so many places at once." Ivory whined from her spot laying on one end of the couch and Raven was on the other, their legs tossed and tangled with one another so that they could both fit comfortably.

"Good afternoon children," A far too excited sounding Charles chirped as he walked into the room taking in the group of young people buried under ice packs and frozen peas, "How's training with Erik going?" he questioned cheerfully to be met with a chorus of displeased groans, "Glad to hear." Charles continued and they could hear the smile in his voice, "Hank, it's time for your training, I'll meet you outside."

The poor scientist looked like someone had just told him his dog died, but he carefully got up none-the-less and began making his way to the doors, his friends waving him off sympathetically but secretly glad that it was him and not them.

"Bye Hank."

"Good luck Hank."

"See ya, Bozo."

* * *

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Ivory jumped and nearly fell off her perch on the countertop, and turned to see Alex in a zip up hoodie strolling into the kitchen and making his way to the fridge. "You scared me." She told him as he past her on his way to the fridge.

"Sorry," he answered not sounding the least bit apologetic as he stuck his head into the fridge, "I didn't think anyone used to be up around this time."

"You must not come down into the kitchen much."

"Can't say that I do," Alex responded extracting himself from the fridge with a carton of milk in his hands, "Why do you?"

"Not as much recently, usually I find Erik down here when he can't sleep either. But tonight it's just me."

"Now it's just us," The blonde corrected hopping up onto the counter beside her with a glass of milk in his hands, "If you don't mind the company." He added quickly.

"I don't." she told him with a gentle smile, "So what's on your mind, why can't you sleep?"

The smile that had been teasing on Alex's lips dropped, "It's nothing, it's stupid."

"Hey," she said gently placing her hand on his arm, "If it's bothering you, it's not stupid."

"It's just frustrating that everyone else seems to be getting much better at controlling their powers, and so far all I've done is set an war bunker on fire."

"I think that's pretty impressive." Ivory said with a small smile which he didn't return, "You can't beat yourself up over that." She told him, but she could understand his irritation at being so stagnant with his powers.

Over the past month everyone except Alex had all but mastered control of their various mutations, Hank was confidently running laps around everyone in the mansion slowly accepting his mutation for what it was, still wary of how it looked though. Sean had actually flown across the mansion with the help of his sonic screams, Hank's wings and the ever so helpful Erik that had forced the boy to fly after he had been dragged up to the top of the large satellite that rested on Xavier's expansive property, and Erik had literally pushed him off, Sean's screams catching him in the nick of time to carry him just like they had all hoped. Unfortunately even with the energy suit that Hank designed Alex still hadn't managed to his a target, not unless it was by accident.

"If you want, I can get Erik to come down to the bunker with you next time. He can yell at you until you shoot him with a plasma blot." Ivory teased Alex and he finally smiled, letting out a short bark of laughter.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Alex said shaking his head, "I'd really rather not get on his bad side some more."

"Some more?" Ivory echoed and Alex clammed up remembering that he wasn't supposed to say that, "What did you do?" she probed and he had flashbacks to a few days ago in the gym.

* * *

_It was only Alex and Erik in the mansions gym today, the others having a day off courtesy of the Professor which they all took full advantage of, giving their bodies the rest that they deserved. _

_The two men worked out in comfortable silence only broken by the occasional grunt or short span of conversation between them. Erik was standing over Alex, spotting him as the boy lifted the bar up and down._

_"So, uh," Alex cleared his throat slightly as he spoke in as casual a tone as he could manage while lifting the hundred plus pound bar up and down, "You and Ivory seem pretty close."_

_"You could say that." Erik responded dryly._

_Alex pushed through the awkwardness he felt and quickly spit out the question that had been on his mind, "Is she seeing anyone?"_

_Erik paused for a moment as he realized what the boy had just asked him. His first thought was why ask him instead of, say Raven? His second thought was why in the world would Alex be so curious about it that he would ask Erik? Obviously Erik knew the answer to the second question, he wasn't blind, he could see that Ivy was an attractive young woman, but he was sure that he was incapable of seeing her in any sort of romantic light, she was a dear friend. That Erik found himself to be protective of, if the prickle of irritation that ran down his spine was any indication._

_"Not that I know of." Erik at last answered as Alex finished his set._

_"Alright." Alex responded having wanting to end the conversation there, but Erik didn't._

_"Why do you ask?"_

_"Doesn't matter man, forget I said anything." Alex responded defensively sitting up and turning on the bench._

_Erik sighed and thought to himself that being around all these kids and Charles was making him soft, as he walked around and joined Alex on the ling bench, hesitating for a second before placing a hand on his shoulder, "Why not ask Raven?" he questioned._

_Alex huffed and rolled his eyes, "Something tells me that I wouldn't have gotten a straight answer from her."_

_Erik nodded, he knew how dramatic the blonde could be, and if he was being honest with himself, he liked Alex, he was immensely less irritating than Sean, and even though he was on the quieter side of things could hold a decent conversation if he so chose, which made him better to talk to than Hank. He wouldn't say it out loud and would deny it if Charles looked into his head, but if he had to pick a male in the mansion to pursue Ivy, it would be Alex._

_"Ivy is single," Erik finally said and Alex fought hard to keep himself from reacting too much outwardly, "She's a sweet girl, and my friend. So be careful." He added seriously, and Alex nodded before Erik stood and went to the free weights as they continued their workout not mentioning again the awkward conversation that had just taken place._

* * *

"It's not important," Alex answered her earlier question, coming back to the present.

"Alright," Ivory shrugged, "And I know it's easier said than done, but trust your powers, and yourself," she added, "You might be surprised what happens."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." She nodded before a shiver racked her body.

"You cold?" Alex questioned straightening up and glancing at the open windows.

"A little," she responded rubbing her arms exposed by her thin camisole, "It gets stuffy in here at night." She answered his silent question.

"Well, here," he nodded unzipped his hoodie and pulling it off. "Take this."

"No, no, I can't." Ivory protested immediately as he slipped it off, and wrapped it around her shoulders, "What about you?"

"Its fine, I normally stay pretty warm because of my powers." He explained holding the sides of the hoodie open waiting for her to slip her arms in, which she did begrudgingly, but couldn't deny how toasty she was inside the jacket. "You look adorable." He teased and she playfully glared at him, before he suddenly flinched and reached a hand up to the side of his neck rubbing down on the muscles there.

"You okay?" she asked concerned.

"Yeah I'm fine," Alex spat out through gritted teeth waiting for the spasm to pass, "Shoulder's been bugging me for a few days because of training." He went on to explain.

Ivory winced on his behalf knowing that Erik usually went a little bit harder on the boy's in training, "Do you mind if I-" she trailed off uncertainly.

"Do you know how?"

"How hard can it be?"

Alex thought for a moment before he nodded, and she gave him a shy but excited little smile and swung her legs underneath her so she could get to her knees and scoot behind him on the countertop, before placing her cool small hands on his shoulder and beginning to knead the tight muscles there. He furrowed his brow and his head dropped forward and he suppressed a groan because it felt good, really good.

"Are you okay?" she asked on the verge of panic stopping her movements, "Did I hurt you?"

"No," he bit out, "No you're fine."

"Okay." She replied quietly then continued to work he hands over his shoulders.

Then there was silence between them, only broken by Alex's occasional groans when she hit a particularly rough spot, he was convinced that her hands were magic by the time she slowed down and he was leaning back into her nearly pressing all his weight into her as she ran her fingers over the muscles in his upper arms and shoulders.

"So I was wondering," he started quietly, "If maybe, one of these days you'd want to go out with me?"

There, he said it.

Ivory froze, "You mean like a date?"

Alex leaned up slightly to look over his shoulder at her which suddenly put his face much closer than she was expecting, "Yeah, like a date."

"I'd like that." Ivory said nodding with a smile, and Alex couldn't help but return it.

She looked down at him being a couple inches taller form standing on her knees behind him and didn't even register her eyes flicking down from his to his lips and back, but Alex did there was no denying what he'd seen, and before he even realized what he was doing, leaned in a bit closer to Ivory closing the tiny gap of space between them.

Their lips were just about to touch when Ivory suddenly jerked backwards, "We should um," she stammered fixing her braid over her shoulder, "We should get to bed."

Ales cleared his throat and nodded, "Yeah," he said straightening up, "You're right." He climbed down off the counter then turned to help take Ivory down as well.

"Walk me to my room?" she questioned shyly and he nodded, because of course and they headed upstairs in tense silence.

Ivory's room had never seemed so far away before as she silently berated herself, why didn't she just kiss him? It was obvious that he liked her, and she knew she liked him. Why was she such an idiot?

After a short eternity, they finally made it to Ivory's room, luckily Alex's was right across the hall.

"Well, this is me." Ivory said standing in front of her door, "Thanks for walking me back, and for keeping me company tonight."

"No problem," Alex responded standing in front of her with his arms folded across his chest, "Thanks for the massage."

"No problem." She nodded twisting the sleeves of the jacket she was around her hands, before suddenly remembering whose it was, "Oh, your hoodie." She said making to take it off.

"Keep it," he cut in holding up his hand, "It looks better on you anyway."

"Thanks," Ivory blushed, "Goodnight Alex."

"Night Ivy."

She turned and briefly fumbled with the doorknob, before finally turning it the right way and scrambling into her room. She closed the door behind her and stood there for a moment leaning her head against the doorjamb fighting the urge to knock her head into it until she beat some sense into herself.

"Stupid!" Stupid!" she whisper-yelled, "I'm an idiot." She took a deep breath and let it out before pulling open her door again happy to see that Alex hadn't entered his room yet.

"You forget some-" Ivory cut him off by closing the short distance between them and reaching up wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and pulling his face downward until their lips met.

Ales responded immediately bringing a hand up to the side of her neck to hold her in place, and placed the other one on her waist to pull her a little bit closer, as he kissed her back. Ivory went willingly bringing her other hand up to rest on his strong bicep, as their soft tentative kiss became a little bit more confident.

Ivory started it, and she also finished it as she started to pull away, and her hand slid from his neck to rest on his chest as she both took in short breaths.

"Goodnight." Ivory muttered again through a wide smile, patting his chest before turning quickly and scurrying back into her room closing the door behind her again. Nearly squealing on the other side instead of curing herself.

Meanwhile Alex said nothing, only smirked and brought a hand up to his lips, touching them with his fingers before turning and entering his own room. Both young mutants falling asleep with smiles on their faces.

* * *

**_Ivana Bocanegra: _I got you bish.**

**_ZabuzasGirl: _Thank you!**

**We got a kiss folks! We got a kiss!**

**Alright people, some steps taken in a relationship direction, but next chapter we head to Cubs and things are gonna get messy. What would you like to see happen there? And how do you think Ivy is gonna react to Erik's actions?**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	8. Chapter 8

"Oh my God." Raven said slowly with her mouth agape a smile slowly growing. Ivory watched the blonde slowly growing more giddy and wondered if telling her was a good idea, "You kissed him." She whispered.

"Yeah?" Ivory responded apprehensively.

Raven squealed loudly, "You kissed him!" she repeated louder batting Ivory's arm. "Tell me everything. Right now, start from the beginning."

And so she did, Ivory told Raven everything from Alex finding her in the kitchen, to their conversation, to him walking her upstairs and finally her gathering up the courage to kiss him before running away into her room. Raven watched listened with heart eyes and her hand under her chin, "So yeah." Ivory finished lamely.

"So when are you guys gonna go out?"

"I don't know," Ivory said with a shrug, "I guess once everything with Shaw is figured out, and we can actually relax for once. Or go out without having to look over our shoulders."

"That's so cute." Raven gushed, "I'm taking you shopping." Ivory smiled at her friends excitement but to Raven it seemed forced, "What's wrong? I thought you liked Alex?"

"I did," She responded automatically, then quickly amended, "I do. It's just a little but pathetic that I'm 20 years old and only just had my first kiss."

"Ivy, I think it's cute, does he know?"

"No," Ivory said strictly, leaning back, "Do you know how embarrassing that is?"

"I think it's sweet." Raven implored, "Innocence isn't always a bad thing. Besides the way Alex looks at you, I think he'd just about burst if he found out he was your first kiss."

"Is that a good thing?"

"It's a great thing," Raven insisted, "Trust me."

Before Ivory could respond they were interrupted by a cheerful voice entering into the kitchen and making a beeline straight towards them, "Good morning ladies." Charles said approaching the table but not taking a seat.

"Morning Charles." They responded in unison.

"Ivy, I was wondering if I could perhaps before you for a moment. I need your help." Charles asked looking to the dark haired girl in question.

"With what?"

"I was wondering if you would be willing to come down to the bunker today, to help Alex focus when using his power," Charles said quietly. "I think that you might be able to help him control his emotions."

Ivory flushed again, and she stammered out, "I- Okay." Charles smiled brightly then Ivory stood and said goodbye to Raven before following Charles down into the mansion's bunker, "How did- How did you know?"

Charles sighed but his smile didn't falter, "Unfortunately I hear everything that goes on within this house, and if I'm honest, Alex's thoughts were particularly loud this morning." Then his smile turned impish, "He seems quite smitten with you."

Ivory wondered if there was an acceptable amount of time a person could blush within a short span of time before something was really wrong with them, as her face went up in flames again. "I am too." She admitted shyly, before realizing something, "It's not bad right? I mean we won't get in trouble?"

Charles smiled again and cut her off gently placing his hand on her shoulder, "Calm down love, everything's quite alright, you're not in a trouble. In fact I think it's quite nice."

"Thanks."

Then Alex walked in carrying a mannequin under his arm, followed by Hank with a wad of blue fabric hanging over his arm. Alex looked up and paused slightly in surprise when he saw her standing there with Charles, Hank however did not look nearly as surprised.

"Lovely, we're all here," Charles said, clapping his hands together as Hank handed the blue fabric to Alex, and took the mannequin. "Alex, you can go ahead and slip that on, there's a good chap."

Ivory watch Alex as he unhappily slipped the fabric over his head, and then as the vest hung down over him she noticed the circular panel resting against his chest, "Is that the thing that's supposed to help him control his powers?" she asked Charles.

"Yes it is, the panel helps Alex control his energy rather than the rings you've seen it turns them one long beam. Alex, just has to direct the energy to whatever he wants to hit," Charles whispered, "Why don't you go and help Hank?"

Ivory nodded and joined Hank at the other end if the bunker where he set down the mannequin and handed her a roll of tape. He gestured for her to rip the tape, so she pulled off a long strip and handed it to him. He stuck it to the mannequin's stomach then did the same with the second strip she gave him. When he was finished, Ivory realized what he'd done, he'd made an 'X' a target for Alex to aim for.

"Wonderful work Hank, thank you very much, if you wouldn't mind taking a step to the side." Charles said joining them, "Ivy, can you stand on the other side of the mannequin beside Hank? Thank you," He smiled at her as she complied with his orders, and he went to stand on the mannequin's left. "Alright Alex, I want you to hit the 'X', only the 'X' and not any of us."

Ivory realized the seriousness of the situation a moment too late. Alex was going to aim at the mannequin whilst she, Hank and Charles were all standing around it. And judging by the expression on Alex's and Hank's faces, this was a new development to them as well.

"You're serious?" Alex demanded, yelling to be heard from the other side of the bunker.

Hank and Ivory exchanged nervous glances while Charles replied calmly, "I'm very serious."

"I could hit Ivy!" Alex exclaimed tossing his hands, "Or you know, you. Or Hank." He added lamely.

"I have complete and utter faith in you." Charles said calmly with his hands resting in his pockets.

Alex looked at Ivory and she nodded confident that he could do it, and it was that look in her eyes that urged him on.

He nodded back towards her and Ivory watched as the muscles in Alex's arms and neck tensed, as he pulled all his energy and concentration onto hitting only the middle mannequin. Then, when a singular beam of red energy shot out from the device on his chest and hit the mannequin un the middle, it went up in flames, Ivory, Charles and Hank all ducked to the side of the bunker, covering their heads with theirs arms.

As soon as Ivory lowered her arms and saw the flaming mannequin she smiled and ran to the other end of the bunker where Alex was laughing happily and threw her arms around him in a tight hug, which he returned lifting her slightly off her feet.

When he set her back down she was beaming at him as she whispered, "I knew you could do it." He returned her smile then looked over her shoulder nodding to Charles who smiled and nodded back.

"Am I still a bozo?" Hank called loudly from the end of the bunker.

"Yes Hank, you're still a bozo," Alex replied seriously causing Ivory to playfully glare at him and gently smack his chest. "But nice job," he added sincerely, catching Ivory's hand with his and twisting their fingers together.

* * *

After his successful controlling of his power down in the bunker that morning, Ivory and Alex spent the remainder of their day, currently strolling around the mansions grounds hand in hand.

"I looked for you this morning." Alex said casually.

Ivory scoffed, "Blame Raven, she abducted me right after breakfast and demanded to know, and I quote 'Why I was so extra smiley this morning?'"

"What did you tell her?"

"The truth, I told her there was this really cute guy that I stayed up all night talking too."

He grinned, "Really?" Ivory hummed, "That's funny because last night I stayed up talking to this really cute girl."

"No?" Ivory fake gasped.

"Yeah," he nodded, "And then when I tried to kiss her, he rejected me. I'll admit that stung a bit, but after I walked her to her room, she kissed me. And it was pretty amazing."

Ivory blushed looking down, "She sounds great."

"She is," Alex pulled on her hand and they stopped walking, "And I'd really like to kiss her again," he said reaching out and nudging her under her chin with his knuckles making her look up into his eyes, "If she'd let me?"

"Why don't you just ask her?"

Alex smirked already leaning in, "Ivy, can I-" but they were interrupted by a different voice.

"Hey guys!" Sean called from a second story window, leaning out with his hands on the frame, "The President is about to do his speech!"

Ivory and Alex glanced at one another before quickly making their way into the mansion.

* * *

The entire house were gathered in the common room, watching the black and white television. More specifically, watching the address president John F. Kennedy was making about the possibility of a nuclear attack.

_"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile crossing the embargo line that surrounds Cuba as an attack,"_ President Kennedy paused to look directly at the camera lens. _"By the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union."_

"That's where we're going to find Shaw," Erik pointed out, gesturing to the screen with a gun in his hand, Ivory wondered why he would possibly need a gun, but that was rather obvious, then she wondered why he had it out before deciding know wasn't the time for such questions.

"How do you know?" Alex wondered aloud, asking the more important questions pertaining to the matter at hand.

"Two superpowers facing off and he wants to start World War III; he won't leave this to chance," Charles explained easily, not looking away from the screen.

"So much for diplomacy," Erik muttered before patting Ivy on the arm and nodding to Alex. "I suggest you all get a good night's sleep."

* * *

How many sheep can a person count before they go insane? Ivory wondered to herself later that night, sitting up in bed, wide awake and on the verge of counting her third herd of sheep. Sighing she pushed back her sheets and crawled out of the bed, leaving the room to head down to the kitchen to give Erik's form of sleep therapy a try, but before she made her way down the hall she noticed the door across from hers had light seeping out from underneath it. That meant Alex was still awake too. After giving it a short thought she changed directions and quickly reached out knocking on the door a few times before she lost her nerve.

There was a bit of shuffling on the other side of the door before it swung open, and Alex was stood there, with a shirt on unfortunately, he looked surprised to see her there before he nodded and opened his door widen for her to step into the room. Which she did, and he closed the door behind her.

"Can't sleep?" Alex questioned softly following her back to his bed, he moved a few random pieces of clothing from the edge of his bed so that they could sit comfortably.

"No." Ivory said shaking her head and sinking down on the bed.

"Worried about tomorrow?"

"Yeah?"

"You want to talk about it?" he asked calmly and she shook her head again.

"No."

Alex sighed, "Good, neither do I." he leaned back on his hands, "What do you want to talk about?"

Ivory looked around the room, that wasn't set up all that differently from hers, then turned her head slightly to the other side of the bed that was mused up, probably from where Alex had been laying there before she came in, "You read comic books?" she asked shocked.

"Yeah," He huffed, a light pink dusting his cheeks as he reached back to grab the book, turning it over in his hands, "My parents would send them to me, back when I was in prison, to help keep me entertained. Didn't always work but, I never got rid of them."

"Have you called, or spoke to them since you got out?"

He shook his head looking down to the ground, "I didn't want them to get too excited to see me you know? Just in case," he trailed off but they both knew what he meant.

"It's really happening tomorrow isn't it?" she whispered, "We're going to war."

Alex nodded, "Yeah." Then he took a deep breath and forced a smile, "We're not supposed to be talking about that."

She mimicked his smile, "You started it," she teased, "Do you think you'll reach out to them? After? You know if you survive?"

"Yeah I think I will."

"Then we better keep you alive." She joked with a real smile, Alex returned it and leaned in closer placing a short kiss on her lips.

"After our date." He whispered against her lips and she pulled back with a short laugh.

"You've got a deal."

His smile turned a little bit more contemplative, "Ivy, I want to tell you something."

"Don't," she said gently and his brow furrowed at the command, so she explained, "Don't say anything that you wouldn't say if there wasn't a chance that we could die tomorrow."

Alex nodded again in understanding and leaned forward once more closing the little bit of distance between them, his eyes flitting back and forth between hers and her lips, before he pushed his soft lips against hers. She wound her arms around his neck and one of his rested on the small of her back, the other keeping him balanced on the bed. This kiss felt different from their other kisses, though it was no less gentle, it was much more passionate, especially when Alex's tongue touched her lip for the first time.

Ivory pulled back slightly, and immediately Alex backed away worried that he'd crossed a line, but those worries were laid to rest when she gave him a shy smile and crawled into his lap, straddling him before kissing him again. He brought both his hands to rest on her waist as his tongue slid past her lips to tangle with hers.

Slowly Alex leaned back on the bed until he was laying down, keeping her pressed to his chest and their lips connected. When they finally pulled away at the same time, they stayed pressed against each other breathing heavily staring at each other.

"I'm scared." Ivory confessed, breaking the silence between them, reaching up with one hand to run her fingertips over Alex's sharp jawline.

"I know," Alex admitted reaching up and tucking a short piece of hair behind her ear so he could see clearly her two-toned eyes, "I am too. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

She smiled and pecked him again, "Thank you."

Alex nodded pleased with himself, "You're welcome." He said before taking a deep breath and holding it, "Stay with me tonight? I don't think either of us wants to be alone." He added quickly. Ivory nodded biting back a smile and Alex deflated letting out the breath he'd held in.

It was official, he thought to himself as they rearranged themselves under the sheets and Ivy immediately curled into his side, I've fallen for her.

* * *

Alex and Ivory woke up the next morning tangled around each other, getting up from the bed without mentioning the previous night or the upcoming war Alex pulled her into a quick kiss before she left his room and scurried back across the hall before anyone could catch her leaving his room. She cleaned up quickly and got dressed in a dark green long sleeved dress, with black boots and her accessories before leaving to meet up with the others.

* * *

A quick and tense breakfast later Ivory, Alex, Erik, Sean, Raven, Moira, and Charles were stood outside Hank's lab as the young scientist was missing that morning, staring in confusion at the hand written note pinned to the door.

_Gone to the airbase._

_Bring the crate marked X._

_Hank_

Charles spared the group a shot glace before reaching forward and ripping off the note then pushing the wooden doors open.

The inside of the room was a scene absolute carnage; all of the tables were overturned, broken experimental equipment and electronic equipment scattered the floor and papers were torn to shreds. It looked like some kind of beast had blown through.

Charles strode into the room, dodging broken glass and furniture, as he made his way to the back with the others following behind carefully to where a large metal crate sat untouched on a table.

"What the hell happened here?" Erik asked the question on everyone's mind as the approached the crate.

Charles reached the crate and lifted the lid, peering inside. The others gathered around staring down at the contents of the crate.

"Hank has been busy," Erik scoffed, seeming insulted by the bright yellow material staring back up at them.

"Do we really have to wear these?" Alex's voice held a tone of disbelief obviously not a fan of the brightly colored suits either.

"As none of us are mutated to endure extreme G-Force or being riddled by bullets," Charles said shrugging, reaching out to grab the suit that was resting on top. "I suggest we suit up."

* * *

Ivory was in one of the bathroom stalls changing into the new uniform and boots, Raven was in the other, after a few more second she heard Raven emerge then knock on the door of her stall.

"Ivy you okay?" she asked concerned.

"I'm fine," she answered through the door before scoffing and pulling it open letting her hand drop from fiddling with her zipper, "This isn't going up anymore." She explained in a huff.

"Hello cleavage," Raven teased yellow eyes widening, "I guess Hank didn't get all of our measurement right."

"Guess not." She Ivory muttered trying the zipper again with no success. "Is it distracting?"

"For me? Not at all." She responded before a familiar mischievous smile took up her face, "Havok might be a different story."

Ivory's mouth dropped open, then she laughed along with Raven grateful for the lighthearted moment they could share.

"By the way," Ivory said once they calmed down, "You look really pretty Raven."

"You think so?" she asked shyly.

"I know so," Ivory answered reaching out and taking her hand, she had seen Raven in her blue form since breakfast but didn't comment on it until they were alone, "And if there are others that can't see that, then they don't deserve you."

Raven smiled and pulled her friend into a hug, before whispering in her ear, "Thank you Ivy."

* * *

An hour later the group stood in a private airbase which concealed the single strangest aircraft Ivory had ever seen in her life, though she hadn't seen very many. And amusingly enough, Raven was right, Alex's jaw had dropped open the moment she and Raven had approached the group, he was quick to snap his mouth shut however and kept his eyes respectively above her neck, she could practically see the effort he put into he a gentleman. Unfortunately Sean didn't quite have the same willpower as his friend and it took Erik slapping him in the back of his head to get him to stop staring.

"Where's Hank?" Raven asked looking around, as the young scientist still had yet to appear.

"I'm here," A familiar voice called from the shadow's as a large form emerged from the other side of the hangar. The dark figure came into the light and everyone was shocked and confused.

"Hank?" Charles carefully, his voice full of curiosity.

'Hank' looked up from beneath his glasses in shame, the blue creature in front of them clearly wasn't the young careful scientist they'd come to know.

"It didn't attack the cells," he came to a stop several feet in front of them, looking down sadly. "It enhanced them. It didn't work."

"Yes it did Hank," Raven said soothingly, she seemed to be the only one not surprised with Hank's new appearance. "Don't you see? This is who you were meant to be. This is you." She reached out and rested a gloved hand against his cheek. "No more hiding."

Erik leaned over to catch, Hank's eye, "Never looked better man," he complimented as good-naturedly hit Hank's arm.

Hank however, didn't react well; his arm shot out and his hand wrapping around the front of Erik's neck in a tight grip, a snarl twisting his features as he growled.

"Hank," Charles warned as Raven, Alex, Ivory and Sean jumped back, slightly.

"Don't mock me," Hank warned Erik lowly, glaring at him, ignoring the fact that Erik's face was turning red as he struggled to take in a breath.

"Hank put him down immediately, please," Charles demanded politely, but his voice grew in concern. "Hank. Hank!"

Hank finally let go of Erik, who dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. He glared up at Hank.

"I wasn't," Erik rasped out, as Ivory bent and took his arm helping him back to his feet.

"Even I gotta admit you look pretty badass," Alex commented, from her other side crossing his arms. "I think I've got a new name for you – Beast."

When Hank growled at Alex, even as his chest puffed up in an obvious display of pride.

"You sure you can fly this thing?" Sean asked Hank, changing the topic and completely ignoring what had just happened in the way that only Sean can.

"Course I can; I designed it." Hank answered simply and confidently.

* * *

Hank settled into the pilot seats and Moira sat on his left in front of many boards and switches. Charles, Raven and Sean sat in the three seats on one side of the plane, and Erik, Alex and Ivory sat in the seats on the other side of the jet, Alex and Erik all but forcing her into the middle seat between them.

They all buckled into their harnesses and pulled the headphones over their ear as instructed by Hank.

The engines roared into life as they began to taxi down the runway, quickly picking up speed, before taking off at the end of the concrete stretch. Ivory felt her stomach drop, as she realized this was her first time flying, and so far she wasn't enjoying it one but.

"Not a fan of flying Blühen?" Erik teased from her side seeing how tightly she gripped onto her harness.

"If I was meant to fly," Ivory bit out, "God would have given me wings." Erik smirked like he was amused and so did Alex, but the latter did offer her his hand to hold onto for the ride, which she did eagerly.

After a ride that involved Ivory steadily squeezing the life out of Alex's hand, it seemed they'd finally arrived the embargo line as Hank tensely informed them through the headphones. "Looks pretty messy out there,"

Charles lifted up his hand to his head and closed his eyes, using his power to see what he could find, he opened his eyes seconds later with a slight wince and a frown.

"The crew of the Aral Sea are all dead; Shaw's been there," he explained, looking at Erik.

"He's still here, somewhere," Erik replied.

"He's set the ship on course for the embargo line."

"If that ship crossed the line, our boys are going to blow it up," Moira informed grimly looking back. "And the war begins."

"Unless they're not our boys." Charles said firmly.

Ivory looked at him in confusion, before glancing over at Erik, who seemed thoughtful, like he knew what Charles was implying, and maybe he did.

Charles inhaled deeply and pressed his finger to his temple once more, a look of intense concentration on his face.

Suddenly Hank growled sharply from the front of the pane before it tilted sharply before barreling through the sky, Raven and Ivory shrieked as the plane spun while Hank tried to regain control, vaguely she could feel an pressing against her chest and another around her waist and she could only assume that it was Alex and Erik trying to keep her in her seat.

There was a boom from outside of the plane before it finally, the plane resumed its normal flight.

"A little warning next time, professor?" Hank called out sarcastically, glancing back to look at him.

"Sorry about that," Charles apologized, keeping one arm across Raven. "You alright?" he asked Raven and Sean.

Raven nodded quickly, whilst Sean looked at him in disbelief and Erik repeated the question to Alex and Ivy, who nodded.

"That was inspired Charles," Moira commented as she flipped some switches.

"Thank you very much, but I still can't locate Shaw," Charles replied, keeping his hand to his temple.

"He's down there, we need to find him now," Erik demanded straightening up in his seat.

"Hank?"

"Is there anything unusual on the radar or scanners?" Hank questioned turning to the CIA agent on board.

"No, nothing," Moira responded begrudgingly.

"Well then, he must be underwater," Hank added, seeing Charles drop his hand from his temple and give up on using his mind to search for Shaw. "And obviously we don't have sonar."

"Yes we do," Sean suddenly exclaimed confidently sitting up in his seat.

"Yes we do," Charles agreed with a small smile, taking off his headphones and getting up.

Both Erik and Sean followed suit, unbuckling their harnesses, placing their headphones on the hooks and climbing to their feet, using the roof as a way of keeping balance in the tilted aircraft.

"Hank! Level the bloody plane!"

The plane slowly levelled out, allowing Erik, Charles and Sean to let go of the bars supporting the plane, as Charles and Sean moved to stand on the other side of the bomb doors on the floor of the plane.

"Whoa! You back right off," Sean yelled at Erik, who held up his hands in accommodation backing up a few steps at the redhead's request. "Beast, open the bomb bay doors!" Sean yelled towards the front of the aircraft and seconds later with a loud click, the doors opened, letting the roaring wind.

"Remember, this is a muscle!" Charles yelled, holding onto Sean and pointing at the front of his throat. "You control it! You'll be in here the entire time!" he placed his fingers by his temple to inform Sean they would communicate via telepathy. "We'll see you soon. On my mark." He let go of Sean and moved back to hold onto the side of the plane, allowing Sean to walk towards the edge of the doors. "Three! Two! One!"

With a cheer, Sean jumped out of the plane.

"Alert the fleet, they may want to take their cans off," Moira radioed in to the US Government.

A minute or so later, Charles spoke with glee and his hand pressed to his temple.

"Banshee's got a location on Shaw," he confirmed, looking up at Erik. "You ready for this?"

"Let's find out."

The plane dipped as Hank turned them around again, before slowing down to a hover. Ivory watched as landing gear was deployed and Erik held onto the front wheel as it was lowered, before he vanished from sight completely where she sat. Charles kneeled over the open bomb doors, watching Erik concentrate.

Ivory gaped seconds later when she saw the submarine being lifted out of the water through the planes windows. Hank noticed as well, quickly shifting the planes gears and moving them away from the ships below. A sudden gust of wind rocked the plane before Charles yelled down to Erik, "Erik, take my hand!"

"Aw, hold on guys," Hank warned seconds later. "It's going to get bumpy."

The plane was thrown about once more, but having gotten a warning this time they were all better prepared, even though it was no less jarring. Alex threw his arm over Ivory again as the plane was caught it what seemed to be a tornado, courtesy of one of Shaw's associates clearly.

Charles and Erik seemed to fly back through the doors at the bottom of the plane, before falling to the ceiling with Erik holding them down. Just in time too as the plane then hit the ground with a jerk, rolling heavily, the main cabin of the plane snapping away from the rest of the body and the engines as the mutants and Moira inside were all screaming.

As quickly as the rolling began, it stopped, the silence on the plane broken moans and groans as everyone tried to right themselves in the plane that was now flipped upside down, the occasional spark of electricity from the wires that had snapped during the crash.

Ivory suddenly felt her harness loosen and she grunt form the suddenly strain on her shoulders, before she was being pulled down from her seat and into Erik's strong arms.

"Are you alright?" he asked quickly sitting her on her feet and looking her over.

"I'm fine." She responded, and he nodded moving to undo Alex's harness as well, on the other side of the plane Charles had done the same for Raven and Moira.

"I read the teleporter's mind," Charles informed the group as they all gathered around the windows peering out to the destroyed beach, "Shaw's drawing all the power out of the sub; he's turning himself into some kind of nuclear bomb."

"We've got no time, the Geiger counter's going out of control," Moira added, looking over her shoulder at the crackling sounding device.

"Moira this is what we're going to do, get the radio and tell them to clear both sides immediately."

"I'm going in," Erik called loudly, as Riptide, Angel and Azazel appeared by the sub, on the other side of the beach.

"Beast, Havok, Lotus, back him up," Charles ordered without a second thought. "Erik, I can guide you through once you're in, but I need you to shut down whatever it is that's blocking me, then we just hope to God it's not too late to stop a war."

Everyone nodded at their given tasks and made way for the broken hull of the ship, before Ivory was stopped short by a hand on her upper arm.

"Stay safe out there." Erik urged, blue eyes blazing as he stared down at her.

Ivory nodded before leaning up and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, "You too." He nodded and they quickly made their way out of the plane with Alex and Hank.

Alex struck first shooting a blast of energy at Riptide, throwing him back into the wall of the upturned sub. Azazel however disappeared dodging the blast reappearing behind Alex, he swung but Alex ducked and Hank grabbed the red mutant's arm but he was quick wrapping his tail around Alex's neck before the three vanished with a puff of red vapors.

Erik and Ivory were then running across the beach, with Erik thrusting his hand out and ripping off a part of the submarine colliding with Riptide and knocking him down and out, for the time being.

Ivory was stopped by a spray of fireballs near her feet and looked up to see Firefly glaring before flying upwards and circling back towards her. Ivory narrowed her eyes, and as she flew back towards her and spit more fireballs a sudden cone of sand enveloped Ivory blocking her from the fire. When it dropped and blast of sand shot out hitting Angel in the face tossing her backwards in the air, blinding her for a minute. Angel righted herself before flying off towards the ship, before glancing quickly over her shoulder.

Hearing quick footsteps behind her, she turned and saw Riptide was standing a few feet away, conjuring small tornados in his hands. He threw one at her, sending her flying back across the sand, she scrambled to her feet quickly, as he threw the second tornado but she met it in the middle with a gust of sand. The tornado grew as he tried to regain control and she just keep adding more sand keeping it even. Ivory's hair blew about her face wildly, before she suddenly let go, forcing the sand upwards with the tornado before dropping it. While Riptide was distracted with regaining control, she manipulated one of the still standing trees and bent it swinging it at him knocking him out yet again, after he hit the submarine a second time.

A loud scream rang her eardrums briefly but alerted her to Sean flying back. She spun around, just in time to see Sean and Alex crash into the sand and roll in her direction. Sean closer to her than Alex did and seemed to be in more pain than him, so she ran the small distance to her friend to look him over.

A fluttering of wings sounded, announcing Angel's arrival, but before she could gear up to spit another fireball at Ivory, Alex was there with a yell, pulling all his energy into throwing a ring at Angel, slicing off half of her wing and throwing her off balance to send her to the sandy ground with a thud, where she lay unconscious.

Sean laughed happily at the sight of Alex using his powers before rolling onto his back with a pained groan having awkwardly tweaked his leg when he landed. Ivory threw her arms around Alex's neck hugging him tightly.

"I told you I'd keep you safe." His deep voice muttered into her ear and she nodded before releasing him both of them tending to Sean. Before a completely unexpected voice made them jump.

"Azazel." Shaw said firmly, and the red skinned mutant stopped right away. They watched as he stood and backed away from Hank stepping closer to his boss, before he seemed to pause glancing back at Hank who had gotten to his feet. He disappeared and then reappeared behind Hank hoping for a surprise attack, but Hank was ready for him punching him straight out of the air and knocking him unconscious. Shaw's features wobbled, before blue rippled over his skin, revealing a smug looking Raven.

Alex, Ivory and Sean made their way over to the other two, where they all wrapped their arms around one another for support, all of them emotionally and physically drained from the day. A loud screech made them all look up at the top of the submarine, in time to see the metal folding away from a hole.

Ivory gasped as Shaw's dead body floated through the hole and out into the air in a crucifix position, metal strips wrapped around his arms holding him up. Erik then emerged from the hole behind his tormentor, wearing Shaw's metal helmet.

"Today our fighting stops!" Erik yelled as the two sides of mutants all moved closer to see what was going on. Erik dropped his fist and Shaw fell to the ground with a loud thud. He followed, floating down to the sand between the two groups.

"Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters; the real enemy is out there," he pointed to the ships on the water, which were all moving together to form a long, tired line, forming a barrier. "I feel their guns moving in the water, their metal targeting us. Americans, Soviets, humans, united in their fear of the unknown. The Neanderthal is running scared, my fellow mutants." Erik began to walk to the water's edge, Charles and Moira standing closest to him as the other mutants followed but remained at a distance. "Go ahead Charles, tell me I'm wrong." He challenged

Charles lifted a hand to his temple and set his gaze on the ships before them. After a moment, he let his hand down, nodding sadly at Moira, who ran back to the plane.

Loud banged began to fill the air, and the mutants watched in shock as all of the ships started firing their missiles board in the direction of the beach.

And they could do nothing but watch them get closer and closer.

Before Erik suddenly raised his hand, halting the explosives dead in their path and holding them in the air for a moment, and with a slow controlled rotation of his hand; the missiles turned around and pointed straight back at the military ships.

"Erik, you said yourself, we're the better men. This is the time to prove it." Charles pleaded looking between Erik, the missiles and the ships. "There are thousands of men on those ships, good, honest, innocent men. They're just following orders."

"I've been at the mercy of men just following orders." Erik said, before turning to face Charles his voice turning steely. "Never again."

Then he thrust his hand forward and let the missiles fly.

* * *

**_Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi:_ Ikr.**

**_Ivana Bocanegra: _Thanks babe.**

**_MidnightPenguin: _Why thank you my love. We'll see Ivy's reaction to Erik's change in the next chapter.**

**_AlexisDumbee: _THANK YOU!**

**I've recently realized that I've been wrongly imagining Ivy's powers and _plant _manipulation, when in fact it is _earth _manipulation. Pointing it out now because it will become relevant later in the story.**

**And next chapter we will see what Ivory thinks of Erik in this new light, still taking suggestions on what you guys think that'll be. And also of course, the aftermath of what happens on the beach.**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	9. Chapter 9

"Erik, release them!" Charles yelled, but Erik ignored him, his focus solely on the missiles and their rapidly closing distance between the mutants on the beach, and the American and Soviet war ships. "No!" Charles cried, running at Erik and launching himself at his friend, sending the two of them into the sand.

With Erik's concentration broken, the missiles began to fall out of the sky and land in the ocean. Some exploding before they could hit the water, some exploding when they hit other missiles in midair.

Erik grunted loudly when his back hit the sand, as Charles immediately took the opportunity to get his hands on the helmet and tried to pull it off. Erik tried to roll away from him, but Charles yanked him back sharply, his fingers fumbling over the smooth metal around Erik's head.

"I don't want to hurt you." Erik growled under his breath before slamming his elbow into Charles' jaw. "So don't make me."

Charles fell heavily to the side, clutching his face with a gloved hand as Erik gained the upper hand and straddled the smaller man. Wanting to step in and help the professor, Alex, Sean and Hank started to step forward but upon noticing their movements, Erik extended a hand towards them.

"Stand back!" He commanded, sending the boys flying back towards the ruins of the airplane, noticeably leaving Raven and Ivy untouched.

And they could do nothing but watch the men grapple around in the sand until Erik had gained the upper hand, he put his arm on Charles' neck and lifted up his hand, controlling the missiles once more.

"Erik, stop!" Charles tried to use his powers to control Erik, but it didn't work; Erik shoved his arm out of the way and punched Charles across the face before standing up and taking control of the remaining missiles.

The missiles flew with terrifying speed but then bullet bounced off Erik's helmet, causing him to flinch and distracting him from the missiles yet again.

Moira was walking towards Erik, a gun in her hand, firing the bullets at the mutant, a look of steely determination on her face. All the bullets bounced harmlessly off of the metal helmet but they did manage to distract as well as annoy Erik as turned to her, using his powers to simply flick the bullets away before they hit somewhere other than the helmet.

However, one bullet, which was flicked to Erik's right, suddenly hit something.

Time seemed to slow down as Charles arched upwards unnaturally, clutching his lower back with a cry of agony on his lips.

Raven clutched her mouth, tears of horror forming in her eye, Moira stared in horror and shock as Charles slowly fell to the sand, his face creased in pain.

Erik ran forwards to his friend abandoning the missiles entirely, sliding to his knees beside him and began rolling him over, using his powers to remove the bullet from Charles' spine.

The missiles across the sea fell and exploded before they could hit the ships.

"I'm so sorry," Erik muttered to Charles. "I said get back!" he yelled at the young mutants who had started forward again to help Charles but stopped at Erik's command, "You," Erik growled looking up at Moira with a glare in his eyes. "You did this." His lifted up his hand, pointing it at Moira, whose dog tags tightened around her neck, slowly choking her.

"Erik," Charles choked out, pain in his voice. "Please…" Erik ignored him and carried on using his power to kill Moira. "Erik, she didn't do this. You did."

At Charles' words, Erik looked down at his friend, tears and pain evident in his eyes as he realized Charles' words were true. He lowered his hand, the chains around Moira's neck loosening and dropping as she collapsed on to her knees, gasping.

"Us turning on each other, it's what they want," Erik reasoned, "I tried to warn you Charles; I want you by my side. We're brothers, you and I – all of us, together, protecting each other. We want the same thing."

"My friend," Charles let out a small laugh. "I'm sorry, but we do not."

Erik's hopeful expression dropped and changed to one of resolute anger, as he saw Charles wouldn't change his mind. Glancing up at Moira, he sharply jerked his head gesturing for her to move closer.

"I'm so sorry Charles," Moira gasped, running over to Charles, taking Erik's place and resting the injured man on her lap.

"It's alright," Charles told her, but gasped in pain shortly after.

Erik got to his feet and turned to face the young mutants.

"Their society won't accept us," he gestured to Moira. "We form our own; the humans have played their hand, now we get ready to play ours." He paused looking individually over the standing mutants, before his gaze landed on Ivy and he offered his hand, "Who's with me?" she stared at his hand, before meeting his gaze and shaking her, moving a half a step to stand slightly behind Alex.

She saw his face fall and he blinked, before his gaze moved on to Raven and he spoke again. "No more hiding."

Raven began to limp forwards, towards Erik, but she looked at her brother, lying on the ground and diverted making her way over to him, kneeling beside him and grasping his hand.

"You should go with him," Charles said looking up at his sister through tear-filled eyes. "It's what you want."

"You promised me you would never read my mind."

"I know, I promised you a great many things I'm afraid. I'm sorry."

He lifted up her hand and kissed it gently, before Raven kissed his forehead in goodbye. "Take care of him," Raven spoke to Moira, who watched her cautiously.

Raven got to her feet and turned her back on her brother taking Erik's outstretched hand. Angel, Riptide and Azazel had all walked across the sand to join with Erik.

"And Beast," she called out. "Never forget; mutant, and proud."

Hank looked away, as if trying to ignore her. Ivy refused to look at Erik instead keeping her gaze directed to the side of Alex's neck. Erik stared at her as if he could will her to change her mind, if she'd only look at him, when she didn't he directed his gaze to Alex instead whom he offered a single nod. Alex hesitated but responded the same.

Erik then turned and nodded to Azazel, who used his power to transport the mutants off the beach. Once there were gone, Alex, Sean, Hank and Ivory, ran forwards to Charles and Moira. Hank kneeling beside Charles' left arm, Sean standing beside Hank, and Alex and Ivory on their knees by Charles' head.

"Help him up, help him up," Moira demanded, her voice shaking. "We need to get you to a hospital."

Hank tried to lift Charles, but Charles cried out in pain as they tilted his torso slightly.

"Wait, wait," Hank urged, his medical knowledge kicked in. "Don't move, Charles, just wait."

"I won't. Actually I can't. I can't," He stammered blinking hard a few times before he whispered five terrifying word," I can't feel my legs," He repeated the words over and over, as the others stared at one another in shock, at what Charles was saying meant.

**_Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi:_ Lol, thanks.**

**_Ivana Bocanegra: _Like I said in the end note of the last chapter that I've been wrongly imagining Ivy's powers as _plant _manipulation, when in fact it is _earth _manipulation, which allows the user to control a variety of different materials, including sand. **

**Why did this chapter take me so long to write, when it's so damn short -_-? Apologies for that folks. But next chapter will be longer and it will bring First Class to a close. **

**So next chapter Ivy will be coping with the fallout from Erik's departure, as well as Charles' new developments. As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	10. Chapter 10

The military had stormed the beach shortly after Erik and his new group of mutants had disappeared. Their presence was both a relief and worrisome as they handled the mutants like they were criminals, despite Moira's insistence that they weren't any danger.

Just short of putting them in handcuffs they were stuffed on the back of a medical plane, with Charles pumped full of sedatives strapped down on a gurney to the side of the plane.

They were taken to a military hospital in nearby Florida, where Charles was immediately taken for emergency surgery. The rest of them were urged by Moira to get looked over by the doctors. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, only Sean came away with a sprained ankle from his earlier crash landing. Other than a few bumps and bruises they were okay. And when the doctor wanted to take blah blood from them, a growling blue Hank McCoy stood between them and the doctors.

And despite Hank's intimidating size and growls, and the boy's threats and pleas, they weren't allowed to go and see Charles.

For days they sat in an isolated ward, it was nerve explicitly stated but they weren't allowed to go beyond the ward without supervision, whether it was because they were viewed as children, or the fact that they were mutants.

Ivy didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't help the thought from crossing her mind. 'Maybe Erik was right'.

Days later a doctor came to them and told them that Charles was awake, and asking for them.

* * *

Despite their pleas to see their professor, the four of them actually hesitated outside of his room, unprepared and scared quite frankly of what lie beyond.

"I know you all are out there." Charles' smooth voice drifted from the other side of the door, making their decision for them. Hank huffed, as he was unofficially the designated adult of the group, and opened the door being the first to step inside. Followed shortly by Ivory, then Alex, who had to step back outside to drag in a reluctant Sean.

"Hello children," Charles said still managing to sound his usual chipper self despite his condition. He looked exhausted, paler than normal, with dark bags under his bright blue eyes.

"Hey," Ivory said waving shyly when none of the boys moved, save for Hank who took it upon himself to look through Charles' charts, his brow furrowing the more he read through. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better know that I know that you all are alright."

"What have the doctors said?" Hank asked setting the chart back down and standing on the other side of Charles' bed.

The professor's smile faltered slightly, "They're not hopeful for a full recovery." An uncomfortable silence came over the group as what he meant sunk in, Charles was going to be paralyzed from the waist down.

"I'm sorry Charles."

"It's not your fault dear." Charles responded instantly, the unspoken words hung heavy on whose fault it actually was, then he sighed. "You all will be going home tomorrow, back to the mansion."

"What?" they said in unison and disbelief. "What about you?" Hank continued.

"I'll be along shortly." Charles said calmly waiting for their protests to die down, "I want you all to relax for a while, because when I get back I'll have big plans for the mansion, for all of us actually."

"Plans? Plans to do what?" Hank questioned intrigued.

"You'll see." The professor said smiling despite the situation, "Hank, how long would it take you to build a version of Cerebro in the mansion?"

"With the right materials?" Hank responded rhetorically, "About a week or so."

"Then I suggest you get to work as soon as you get back."

* * *

Just as Charles predicted the next day several government agents came to collect them from their rooms, and ushered them to the nearest airport. From there it was a long uncomfortable flight to New York that was three hours too long. Finally when they landed, the agents assigned to them stuffed them into a cab, undoubtedly happy to be rid of them.

One cramped car ride later the driver couldn't get rid of them and Hanks menacing blue form fast enough. Then came another problem.

"Really." Sean groaned seeing the large iron lock across the front of the gate.

"I could climb over," Hank suggested. "Throw the rest of you over maybe." He added with a shrug.

"Sean's ankle won't take that landing." Ivory said gesturing to the redhead currently on crutches, "And I've been in the air enough these last few days because of you Hank. No offense."

"None taken." Hank tossed his hand, then turned to the blonde. "Alex?"

"I don't think the professor wound appreciate a giant hole in his gate when he comes back." Alex said unhappily shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

"It's sad that we all know who we need right now." Sean said shifting on his crutches.

Ivory frowned and Alex glanced uneasily at Hank, when the blue scientist nodded he took his hands from his pockets and blasted a hole through the fence large enough for them to squeeze through. At least with the iron fence there wasn't a need to lock the front doors. They opened with a simple push.

A collective sigh of relief left the group once they were inside the warm mansion, when they were finally back home. They went their separate ways for a while with the promise to meet up in an hour's time for dinner.

Ivory sighed happy to be back in her room, and out of the stuffy military hospital, the only thing on her mind what taking a long hot shower to wash the grime and hospital smell off her skin and out of her hair.

She was so distracted by the enticing thought of her shower, that she almost missed the strong sulfur smell that was present in her room for some odd reason. She however didn't miss the figure that she caught from the corner of her eyes. Before she could open her mouth to scream, she gasped instead when the tall figure dashed forward covering her mouth with a large hand and cradling the back of her head so that when he pushed her into the wall next to the door with a thump, his hand took the brunt of it. And just as quickly as it happened Erik's blue eyes were blazing down at her.

"Don't scream." He whispered gruffly before a knock rattled the door beside them, making him tense up.

"Ivy?" Alex's deep voice called, "You alright? I thought I heard something."

"Tell him everything's alright." Erik muttered to her waiting for her nod before slipping his fingers off of her mouth.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said towards the door hoping that he wouldn't pick up on the shakiness in her voice, "I ran into the desk."

"Okay, if Sean doesn't burn the place down, dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes."

She nodded despite the fact that he couldn't see her, "I'll meet you guys down there."

When they heard his footsteps Ivory turned back to Erik who had the decency to look sheepish, like he hadn't planned to get this far. "Hi."

"Hi?" Ivy scoffed, "Hi, are you kidding me?" she snapped before shoving him back. He must have been surprised because he actually took a few steps backwards with the force of her shove. But she wasn't done, advancing on him and swatting at his taller frame wherever she could reach, "You come back, here of all places? And that's all you have to say? Hi!"

Hunched over he covered his head with his arms but didn't fight back, and even Ivy knew she wasn't really hurting him. "Keep your voice down." He snapped grabbing her hands.

She yanked her hands back, "What are you doing here?" she asked hugging running low on sleep and high on sudden adrenaline and anger.

"I don't know." He said shrugging, "I needed to make sure you're alright."

"Well I'm here." She answered crossing her arms over her chest defensively, "You can leave now."

"Ivy,"

"What Erik," she snapped cutting him off, "What do you want me to say Erik? That I'm happy to see you? Because right now I'm really not."

"I understand you're upset."

"Don't Erik. Just tell me what you want."

"Come with us. Ivy come with me." He said reaching out and taking her hand.

"No." she answered exasperated shaking her head, "You really think I'd go with you after everything?"

"Honestly no, but it was worth a shot."

"I'm not like you Erik. I thought I was, but the only thing I've ever wanted was to move on from my past. I'm woman enough to admit that you helped me do that. So I thought you wanted the same thing, I was wrong."

He looked genuinely hurt by her words. "I'm sorry okay, I didn't mean for you to get hurt. You or Charles, or any of the others."

"I'm really not the person you need to be apologizing to."

Erik sighed at her stubbornness, "I made peace with Charles on the beach." He placed his hands on his hips looking for the side before back at her, "How is he? When will he be back up?"

"He won't." she told him coldly, then continued through gritted teeth, "The bullet hit his spine. He's gonna be paralyzed for life. You call that peace?"

"What?" he asked frozen in his place.

Ivory could only shake her head before the door behind her opened, Erik tensed but relaxed when Alex walked in with a bottle of water in his hands. He looked up and didn't seem surprised to see Erik there, only disappointed as he shook his head.

"I was hoping you'd wait a few more days." He said as he closed the door behind him. Erik was still frozen in place he only could turn weary eyes on the younger man. "You done?" Erik's jerked his head in a shaky nod. "Then leave. And try not to come back."

Erik stood up straighter and nodded, he glanced at his watch then back at Alex and then Ivy, "Take care of her." He instructed and then a few seconds later a puff of red vapors appeared then Azazel was stood in its place next to Erik. He gave the two of them a once over before placing a hand on Erik's shoulder and then disappeared from the room with him, leaving behind only a trail of vapors and a smell of sulfur.

When they were gone Alex turned to her tossing the water on the bed and hugging her to his chest.

"You okay?" he whispered to her, and only then did she realize how she was shaking.

"Yeah." She didn't think Erik would actually hurt her if and when he came back, she just didn't know what he wanted. "Did you leave?"

"Yeah I did," he nodded his head, chest rumbling a little under her head, "But then you didn't come downstairs, plus I had a feeling he would show up."

"You didn't tell the others?"

"No, I know he wouldn't hurt you. He cares about you too much."

"Not enough to stay."

He sighed and squeezed her tighter before releasing her holding his hands on her shoulders to look her in the eye, "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm getting kind of sick of hearing that." She spat with no real venom and his lips twitched, before he leaned forwards and pressed a kiss to the middle of her forehead.

"I'll let you get cleaned up for real, and I'll meet you downstairs in five minutes," he waited for her to nod before he continued with a small smirk, "If you're not down there I'm coming back to drag you down."

"Then I'll make sure to take my time." She teased and he smiled kissing her again before leaving.

Ivory sighed and looked around her empty room, finding it lonelier than ever before going to the bathroom to clean up before Alex had to make good on his threat, not that she would have minded all that much. She passed by her sink and the medicine cabinet hanging above it before pausing and backtracking to stand in front of the mirror.

Nope, her eyes weren't deceiving her hanging on the knob to the cabinet was a long chain, and on the end was a bent and folded pieces of metal. Upon closer inspection the metal had little indentation running along either side, and she could finally make out what it was. It was a pair of wings.

She blew out a breath through her nose, and carefully pulled it off the knob shaking her head, "Erik."

* * *

Dinner was an awkward affair at first, Sean had miraculously managed not to burn down the kitchen and made decent pasta dish for them to enjoy. However when they sat down at the dining room table to eat, it felt far too empty. The seat at the head of the table was waiting for Charles return and possibly Moira if she decided to come back as well. But there were another pair of chairs that most likely wouldn't be filled by their owners anytime soon, if ever.

So with awkwardness hanging heavy in the air, but no one daring to comment on it, Hank suggested that they eat dinner in the living room and watch some television. The words were barely even fully out of his mouth before the other three were up and in the next room, even with a sprained ankle Sean moved quickly to get away from the tension and unwanted memories.

In the living room they were much more comfortable with the television playing a black and white movie, conversation flowed and for a long while they were able to pretend everything was normal. Then exhaustion crept up again, a day of travelling and being manhandled by government agents would do that to you. Hank was the first to retire to his room, Sean went with him so the furry scientist could help him hobble up the stairs. Fifteen minutes later Ivory was dropping onto Alex's shoulder and he suggested that they call it quits for the night as well.

In her room Ivory shower for nearly a solid twenty minutes, hot water cascading over her head and beating down on sore muscles. Only when she closely resembled a steamed lobster did she cut the water and put on a fresh pair of pajamas. Unfortunately, as it seemed to be a norm for her, as exhausted as she was she found that she couldn't sleep after staring blankly out the window with her eyes wide open as she laid bundled up in the middle of the bed.

Voicing her displeasure with a series of grunts and groans she climbed out of bed and made her way through the dark mansion back to the kitchen. Once there she grabbed a glass and dropped some ice into it before opening a cabinet and pulling out Erik's half-drunk bottle of whiskey, the one with the name she didn't bother trying to learn how to pronounce. It was probably in German anyway.

She filled up the glass and took a few large gulps, hoping that the warm liquor would sooth her enough to get a decent night's sleep like the first time. Unfortunately for the virginal alcohol drinker, one glass turned into two, which turned into three glasses of straight whiskey on ice, which turned out to be a very bad idea, because not only was she extremely not sleepy, she was hopelessly giddy. And who should find her sat on top of the counter's trying way too hard to pour the perfect amount of whiskey into her glass, but a certain Alex Summers.

"Alex!" she sang upon seeing him straightening up slightly before hunching over as if that took too much effort, still she beamed at him still with that sing-song voice, "Hi!"

"Hi," he chuckled, this was the last thing he expected to find when he came downstairs for a glass of warm milk. He took a look at her position on the counter swinging her legs back and forth, then looking at the nearly empty bottle of alcohol and came to a quite conclusion, "You're drunk."

She blew a raspberry and scoffed, "No, I'm not." She dragged out each letter, "I don't – I don't drink."

"I can see that."

"This is Erik's." she said tapping her nail against the glass bottle with each word, "I'm just," hiccup, "Keeping it company until he comes back." She nodded her head bopping wildly. "Do you want some? I'm sure he won't mind. He likes you." When she tried again to pour the perfect amount into the glass he quickly stepped forwards and removed the bottle from her hands.

"Let's not do that huh?" he said capping the bottle and moving the glass out of her reach as well, "We still want him to have some when he gets back right?" She hummed not really paying much attention to his words, as he was suddenly very close to her and she was fighting an overwhelming urge to lick his face. She whimpered a little when he turned to place the bottle back into the cabinet, Alex raised a brow when he turned back to find her legitimately pouting, his shook his head and placed his hands on her waist, "Alright babydoll," he said taking her down, "Let's get you to bed."

She giggled when he set her on her feet, her hands on his biceps, "You're so strong." She squeezed his arm, looking at her hand on him for a few seconds before looking up at him a bit mischievously, "I'll race you upstairs." Then she was gone from between his arms and Alex groaned running after her, quickly hitting the light switch as he went.

Luckily she didn't get very far, only making it up about four steps, as she hung onto the bannister breathing heavily like she'd just run a marathon.

"I'm tired." She groaned out and Alex laughed coming up beside her and placing his arm around her waist.

"C'mere." He said as he began to drag her up the stairs. "Let's get you to your room before you lose a body part."

"I don't wanna go to my room." She whined as he pulled her beside him up the long staircase.

"Why?"

"I'm all alone in there." She confessed sadly, before brightening tugging on his neck where she had thrown her arms around him, nearly causing him to lose his footing and send them both back down the staircase, "Can I stay with you?"

"I don't think that's a good idea." He said honestly as they finally made it to the top of the stairs and he could begin dragging her down the hall.

"Why not?"

"Because you're drunk." He answered simply and she huffed.

"I'm not drunk," she answered stubbornly, "I want another one." She said simply before slipping out from his arms. This time though he spun around and caught her around the waist.

"No you don't." he said playfully, before scooping her up getting her to comment on his strength again.

"So strong." She squealed and he was quick to hush her.

"Don't want to wake the others." He whispered to her and she nodded seriously. He smiled at her adorableness before continuing to march down the hallway with her in his arms. He reasoned to himself that he would bring her to his room only to keep an eye on her.

When he kicked the door open though, she immediately wiggled in his arms until he set her on her feet out of fear of dropping her, then she turned to him and threw her arms around his neck pushing her lips against his in messy, sloppy kisses. Alex's brain went black when she kissed him and he automatically kissed her back, until he tasted the whiskey on her tongue.

"Ivy," he mumbled against her lips trying to pull away, "Ivy." She ignored him in favor of kissing him deeper as she began walking backwards until she hit the edge of his bed and fell on top of it, pulling him down with her. Alex let himself get lost in her for a moment, leaning down on his forearms, before he felt her hands on his back trying to tug off his shirt. "Stop, Ivy. Stop."

"Why?" she whined leaning up to catch his lips again.

"Because you're drunk," he explained catching her wondering hands and pining them besides her head, "And it's not right."

"But I want to!" she whined wrapping her legs around his waist and leveraging his hips down onto hers. When he faltered as a result she caught his lips again wrapping herself nearly fully around him.

Alex groaned against her lips, having not been expecting a test of his self-control tonight, yet here he was. He used her koala like position to push them further up the bed until she was nestled in the pillows before his pulled back again. "Not tonight, okay?" he tried to appease her, "Not like this."

She sighed and dropped her head back, momentarily distracting him with the sight of her neck on display, "How are you so perfect, you oversized glowstick?"

He chuckled on top of her, "Glowstick?"

"Mhm." She hummed with a small smile, her eyes already drifting shut.

Ales sighed again before unraveling her from around him and settling down beside her pulling the sheets over them, "You'll thank me in the morning." He explained as she scurried over to him cuddling up under his arm.

"You know for a while," she confessed her voice dragging as sleep threatened to pull her under, "When he was here, I could have imagined that, that was what it felt like."

"What, what felt like doll?" he asked quietly running his fingers up and down her back, she was nearly purring.

"A family."

* * *

**_Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi:_ That would be soooooooo cute.**

**_Ivana Bocanegra:_ Hmm, I get what you're saying but she still has so much more expanding to do with her powers. Not trying to be mean but you put far too much thought into what you expect her powers to be, how can you be disappointed because the qualities that you've imagined didn't make it into my story. Like I said it's not just plant manipulation its earth manipulation, sand is a part of the earth. And I chose to do that because it opens so many doors for her powers to grow. Do try to remember that I love and appreciate everyone's input, but at the end of the day it's _my _story, and it's my say that goes and what I feel is best.**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	11. Chapter 11

Ivory woke the next morning with a pounding headache unlike anything she'd ever experienced before. She blinked a few times to gather her bearings, her eyes landing on an unfamiliar nightstand and chair in the corner of the room. She realized she wasn't in her own room the same time she registered a warmth pressing into her back and arms wrapped around her waist.

"Good morning." Alex's deep voice rumbled behind her.

Ivory groaned dropping her head back onto the pillow. "Morning." She glanced over her shoulder to see him looking amused, she groaned again, "What happened last night?"

"You got into Erik's whiskey." Alex explained tightening his grip slightly.

"What did I do?"

"Before or after you stuck your tongue down my throat?"

"No." she whimpered trying to burrow under the sheets, "I'm an idiot."

"No you're not." He insisted rubbing her hip. "You were hurting. Besides, you're adorable when you're drunk."

"I can't believe I tried to jump you."

"It's okay, I'm flattered." She could hear the smirk in his voice and was about to roll over to give him her best glare through her headache. But her body had other plans.

"Alex," she mumbled through a thickening throat tugging at his arms around her waist, "Let go."

"What?" he asked all traces of playfulness gone from his voice.

"Let me go." She snapped and thankfully he did, and she was immediately off of the bed nearly flying across the room to the bathroom. She got there just in time to fall in front of the toilet and expel her stomachs contents. Alex was by her side a second later smoothing back her hair and rubbing her back on soothing circles. She groaned again and couldn't decide what was worse, the hangover or the embarrassment of her actions from the night before. When she pulled her head from the bowl she spared a glance at Alex she saw him looking equal parts concerned and amused, "Don't judge me." She muttered.

He grinned leaving her side to fill up a glass of water from the tap. "I'm not." He told her handing her the glass, she swished some of the water around in her mouth before spitting it out and flushing the toilet.

"Don't." She groaned leaning back against the tub.

"Don't what?"

"Look at me like that."

"Why not?"

"I still want you to find a attractive sometimes." She explained pathetically, "You won't do that if I let you see me like this."

He smiled softly and squatted down in front of her, "Don't worry doll, I don't think there's anything you could do that I won't find attractive." Then he leaned in and kiss her on her forehead, "Get cleaned up." He said patting his thighs before standing, "I'll go make you some coffee."

"Three sugars." She told him on his way out.

"I know what to do." He called back over his shoulder.

Ivory smiled and watched his back muscles shift and his broad shoulders branching out of his tank top. She sighed and dragged herself to her feet so head across the hall and to her own room. Slowly, nearly limping back across the hall she vowed silently to herself that she would never, ever, as long as she lived get drunk again.

* * *

After an extremely unenjoyable shower, Ivory was half slumped at the kitchen table, glaring unhappily at her plate of scrambled eggs and toast, while her boys around her practically inhaled their food. At least the coffee was delicious, Alex really did know what do it. Unfortunately Sean was working hard to bring back her headache from earlier in the morning.

"Man you should've woke me up." The redhead exclaimed, "I would've totally gotten trashed with you."

"I didn't even mean to get that drunk." She muttered.

"Happens to the best of us. Right buddy?" he asked happily patting Alex on the back, who just glared at him.

"I'm going back to bed before I puke on you." She said getting ready to stand.

"Wait," Sean stopped her and she sank back down into her seat, "So I was thinking."

"Hope you didn't hurt yourself." Alex teased before she could.

Sean smiled and shook his head, "Only a little. Anyway I had an idea I wanted to run by you guys," everyone was intrigued, "How about we put some ramps around the mansion? You know so when the professor gets back he'll be able to get around easier." Everyone paused in their eating and movements to stare at Sean in shock, "What?"

"Sean," Hank began slowly, "That's a great idea."

"I have those sometimes." Sean boasted.

"And maybe we could fix up one of the rooms downstairs for him. I doubt he'll be able to maneuver up those steps." Ivory said suddenly giddy at the thought of helping the professor any way that they could.

"And then once he gets back we could talk about installing an elevator. So he could get to the higher levels of the mansion easier." Hank suggested.

"Any idea when he'll be coming back?" Alex asked curiously sensing where his friend's minds had gone and figured a timeline was in order.

"The next few weeks in I'm guessing."

"Well we should get to work."

* * *

The boys started at the main entrance constructing a ramp up the side of the steps under Hank's patient instruction and supervision. Ivy wasn't much help in that department so she just provided silent support and admired Alex's muscles as he carried heavy things to and from the mansion.

She did however borrow one of Charles' many cars to travel to and from, getting groceries and other things to prepare for his big welcome home party. She was currently in the kitchen packing away the groceries she'd purchased when Alex found her. Be didn't say a word only started to help her put things into the pantry.

"Hey, are you busy tonight?" he asked casually leaning a shoulder onto the fridge.

"Not unless Hank has found another part of the mansion to destroy." She teased, "Why?"

"Well there's a drive in movie place, about 20 minutes from here. And I do believe I owe you a date."

"Well seen as we went to war almost a week ago," she closed the pantry door and took a step closer to him. "I'd say you're a little late."

Alex leveled her with one of his signature smirks and quickly leaned down stealing a kiss, "I'll meet you in the foyer at 5."

* * *

Ivory had taken Raven's leaving hard, definitely not as hard as she'd taken Erik's, but there were moments where she missed the blonde's bubbly personality. Like right now, when she was deciding what to wear for her date with Alex. Raven did take her shopping like she'd promised, but they hadn't gotten around to actually deciding what she would wear on their first date.

Ivory considered herself a fashionable person, she knew what she liked and stuck to it, so the clothes that she and Raven picked out consisted of her preferred greens and browns, more earthy tones but a sprinkle of color here and there, more than once during their shopping trip Raven had told her that her style was hippie chic, which so was happy to agree with. So after picking out an outfit that she liked Ivory realized that what she really wanted was another girl around to gush to, since she was kind of getting suffocated by all the testosterone in the mansion.

Unfortunately since it wasn't likely she was going to see Raven anytime soon, or really any female friends, she showered and dressed gushing silently to herself. Lacing up her sandals she stood and looked over herself in the mirror though she normally wore earthy tones the black and white paisley shorts and long sleeved white top that Raven picked out really made her multi colored eyes stand out. Satisfied with her appearance and glancing at the clock to see it was now minutes to 5 she grabbed a purse and some cash and headed to the door.

Alex was already waiting at the bottom of the staircase leaning against the banister, he looked up when he heard he approach and smiled, then glanced at his watch.

"Right on time." He told her straightening up.

"I aim to please." She smiled stepping off the last step, he took her hand and twirled her around looking her over.

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you." She said leaning up to peck his lips then look over his own outfit. A plain white shirt, underneath, an open gray flannel underneath his leather jacket, and dark jeans and sneakers finished him off. "You look great too." She said tugging at his jacket, "Really liking the bad boy look."

He grinned, "That's not what I was going for, but thank you." He took her hand and began pulling her towards the door, "C'mon. We're gonna be late."

* * *

The date was great, Alex borrowed one of the professor's convertibles, a red one that Ivy had no idea the name of but Alex was excited about it. The movie was simple and the drive in wasn't crowded, it was perfect for them to not focus on the film at all. But rather then making out like most of time couples there on a Saturday night watching a simple drive in movie, they spent it talking and giggling like a couple of children.

By the time the movie ended Alex pulled out a picnic blanket and they were sitting on it in front of the cars bumper. The rest of their popcorn being shared between them and a box of chocolate covered raisins.

"So?" Alex questioned with a smirk, leaning back on hands.

"What?"

"Not bad for a first date right?"

"Not bad at all."

"You think we might want to make this official?" he asked nervously.

"You mean like going steady?"

"If that's what you want?"

"I kind of thought we already were." Ivy said shyly and Alex smiled leaning up to kiss her.

"I've been thinking about everything that's happened these last few months." Ivy hummed to let him know that she was listening, "And I knew when Charles and Erik picked me up from that prison, that everything was going to change."

"You mean for the better right?" she teased.

"Of course."

Ivy smiled, "I know what you mean though, both of us in our own ways were stuck in one place for so long. Then we got out, and things changed. And they're gonna change again you know?"

"I know."

"I always like the idea of growing up, and being in control of my future. Until it actually started happening."

"Hey," he said nudging her, "We still got a lot of future to go."

Ivy smiled then got an idea, scooting to the other side of the blanket and grabbing the box of raisins, "Here, catch."

"Oh I love this game." Alex grinned adjusting himself.

"Ready?"

"Go for it." He said opening his mouth, Ivy smiled at their childish game and tossed the raisin into his mouth, which he caught, perfectly.

"Beautiful." She said with a mock applause.

Alex smiled bowing his head. "Thank you, thank you." He joked before taking the box from her, "Your turn."

Ivy smiled, but missed his sneaky look because she gasped as she was pelted with no less than six raisins. Alex laughed and was already up and running away.

"You didn't catch a single one." He joked over his shoulder.

"You!" Ivy squeaked running after him grabbing the box and tossing raisins at him.

"That was so bad."

She chased him around the empty field until the box of raisins was empty, and she threw the box at him as he turned lunging for her and tipping her over his shoulder. Ivy giggled as he marched them back towards the car and the blanket kneeling and gently depositing her onto it, crawling over top of her and settling his hands and knees on either side of her.

"I think it's official." He whispered mostly to himself as he stared down at her.

"What?" Ivy responded in kind.

"I'm falling in love with you."

"I am too."

He leaned down to kiss her but before their lips could touch a bright light was suddenly shining down on them, and Ivy shifted pushing Alex off of her and to the side shielding her eyes with her other hand as Alex did the same.

"Look you guys got to leave," a bored sounding teenage worker said, lowering the light so he wasn't trying to blind them, "The movie ended over an hour ago, you need to go home. So I can go home."

"Yeah, man. No problem." Alex said nodding and the teen sighed before turning and walking away.

Once he was a distance away they turned to each other and burst out laughing at the turn of events, but did acquiesce the kids request and packed up the car to begin the drive back to the mansion.

* * *

A day later Charles was coming home, and the four of them were anxiously and impatiently awaiting his return. So when around midday a yellow taxi finally rolled into the front of the property they were all about ready to burst. Especially to see his reaction to the slight modifications they've made to the mansion.

Hank was the first one down the steps helping Charles out of the cab and into his wheelchair, the professor thanked the scientist as gratefully as he always has as Moira got out of the other side. Charles looked much better than he had when they last saw him. Still pale form sitting in a hospital room, but his cheeks held a rosy flush as he blue eyes lit up as he took in their delighted expressions and emotions and no doubt from being home.

Hank pushed Charles up the ramp, which he noticed right away commenting on it.

"And what's this?" he asked still smiling as he greeted the others at the door.

"It was Sean's idea." Hank pointed out and the redhead puffed out his chest.

Charles laughed reaching out and shaking his hand, "Thank you very much my friend. All of you. This was very considerate of you."

"We wanted you to be comfortable." Ivy told him, as she leaned down to hug him.

"And I appreciate it very much. I've got it from here Hank thank you." He said as they were on levelled ground now. "Why don't you two get the rest of the bags from the car," Charles suggested to Alex and Sean, "Hank would you mind getting Moira settled?"

"Not at all."

"Then I would like to meet all of you in my study." He added and though it sounded like a suggestion he left no room for argument, "Ivy? Walk with me?"

"Sure." Ivy responded even though he was already rolling down the hallway, she shrugged to the boys before following the professor.

"It does feel good to be home." Charles exclaimed as Ivy pushed open the doors to his study and he rolled inside, "Would you mind so terribly?" he asked shyly nodding towards the closed curtains.

"Of course." Ivy said going over to the windows and throwing the curtains open, while Charles continued in a casual tone.

"So, tell me. How have things been around here?"

"Same, only a lot quieter."

"And how are you and Alex?" he questioned carefully wheeling himself around his desk.

"Really great. We've just made it official a few days ago." She told him perching on the edge of his desk next to him.

"That's lovely to hear. You all deserve to be happy, you know that?"

"I know." Charles smiled and took a deep breath seeming to steel himself but Ivy cut him off before he could question her, "You want to know if Erik came here?"

He sighed but nodded, "If he was going to take a chance on anyone it was going to be you. He cared about you a great deal you know that?"

"I know." She repeated, "And he was here, he wanted me to go with him."

"Why didn't you?" Charles asked kindly.

"You know why." She pointed out. "I care about Erik, but," she trailed off and sighed.

"It's alright," Charles said patting her knee, "I understand."

Then there was a knock at the door and Hank was poking his head in, Charles nodded and Ivy stood as the other two boys filed in behind the blue scientist. Alex and Sean took the seats in front of Charles' desk and Hank stood by their side while Ivy went and sat on the arm of Alex's chair.

"You all remember when I told you that I had big plans for us all?" there were nods and sounds of agreement, "I've wanted for a long time to have a safe place for mutants, and I think knows a perfect time to start."

"Start what?" Hank questioned.

"Start gathering students, I want to turn this mansion into a school. Not just any school, a school for the gifted."

"A place for mutants?" Ivy asked for clarity.

"Yes," Charles nodded, "But it won't be easy. Even with Cerebro, I'm going to be depending on you to see to it that the children that need help the most are brought here. You'll have to do for them, what Erik and I did for you." He looked at each of them individually, "What do you say?"

"We were the First Class of a new generation," Ivy mused aloud, "I think it's time that we find the next."

Everyone smiled as Sean joked, "I'm going to be the best teacher." The ginger teased and they all laughed excited for what could be in store for them next. Things were continuing to look up/

* * *

**_Ivana Bocanegra:_ Wow, that was kind of rude. And before this back and forth derails into something worse. Just stop, if you don't like what's happening don't read. It's quite simple. Thanks for the suggestion.**

**_Im a half-blood: _Thank you!**

**_LunaEvanna Longbottom: _Fixed it ;)**

**So sorry for the long delay guys, I somewhat lost steam writing this chapter, I've been on an X-Men binge watch and I've already got the entirety of Days of Future Past written in my head and very impatiently waiting to get there. Unfortunately we've got plot stuff to deal with.**

**But next chapter will involve road trip, which I'm so excited to write.**

**Also, do you guys have any face claims for Ivory?**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	12. Chapter 12

_"Alex, you and Ivy take the west coast. Pack for at least a few weeks. We want to get as many children as possible, and I want you two to enjoy yourselves some. Don't fret about money either I've got it all taken care of."_

* * *

As it turns out recruiting students for the school for the gifted wasn't that difficult, of course that wasn't to say it was very easy. Unlike herself, Alex or any of the others who Charles and Erik had recruited what seemed like forever ago the majority of the kids they were after were just that, kids, and these kids had parents, most of them were curious about the school, about who they and Xavier were but for the most part only wanted what was best for their kids.

The school wasn't set to open until the following semester so the parents they met would have a good long while to consider. But Ivy and Alex agreed that there probably wouldn't be more than 50 students at the most enrolled in the school, but doubted that Charles would much care about the number, so long as he was able to help those who needed it most.

After the last family they'd visited, Charles said they were free to come home as soon as they'd like, or continue their little road trip vacation on his dime, since there wasn't really any rush. They chose the latter option since they'd pretty much seen all the west coast had to offer and were ready to head back home, although Ivy had a different idea of where that was then Alex did, she was sure.

Currently they were stopped at a gas station so they coming could fill up on gas before making the long drive back north. Looking down at her map, Ivy silently pondered how far off course the excursion she wanted to go on would take them.

"This is more then a eight hour drive," Ivy said kneeling in her seat to lean over the side of the car, easy to do since the sunroof was down, and talk to Alex who was pumping the gas, "We're going to need some place to crash for the night." She finished explaining and Alex nodded as a V8 bus pulled into the spot in front of them.

"Alright, I think I remember seeing a motel a few miles back with some vacancies."

Ivy nodded but before she could respond there was the sound of a long drawn out whistle and they followed it to see a guy about their age leaning back against the bus and eyeing their direction appreciatively, "She's a looker." He drawled nodding his head.

"Excuse me?" Alex called loudly while squaring his shoulders.

The guy seemed to realize what he says and how it came out because he immediately straightened up, "I mean no disrespect. I meant the car, she's a beauty. What a Thunderbird?"

"Plymouth." Alex responded returning the gas nozzle.

"Very nice." He whistled again, "If you don't mind my asking, she must have cost you a pretty penny?"

"We're just borrowing from a friend."

"Nice friends." The guy said before noticing the license plates, "New York huh? What brings you over to the west coast?"

"Just a little road trip." Ivy explained and he nodded.

"How much longer you in town?"

"We actually have to leave in a few days."

"Tell me you've at least been to the beaches." At their silence the man looked aghast, "Well that's just not gonna fly, you two are officially my new friends, Nate Matthews." He introduced while approaching Alex with his hand out to shake, which he did while introducing himself in turn.

"Alex Summers. This is my girl Ivy."

"Hi."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance." He said politely shaking Ivy's hand as well before taking a step back, "So how bout it? You two up for a bonfire on the beach with some of my friends, then we could show you some real west coast hospitality."

Alex hesitated, "We really should be heading back. Plus we've gotta find a place to crash for the night."

"There's a motel just along the beach." Nate pointed out.

"I don't know man." Alex told him, "We've got a long way back."

"Well if you change your mind, we're a couple miles west." Nate said making his way back to his vehicle, replacing the gas nozzle before hopping in and driving out of the station, honking his horn to them as he did. Alex similarly replaced the nozzle at their pump before closing the cap and rounding the car to climb back into the driver's seat.

"Alex?" Ivy sang fingers crawling up his shoulders, he stilled in starting the engine as he had come to recognize that particular tone of her voice.

"No," He said while meeting her eyes and seeing the pleading look she was giving him, "Doll, we gotta get back."

"Not right away," She told him, "Charles never gave us a specific date, he only said a few weeks. Besides you and I missed a lot of getting to hang out with normal kids our age."

Alex sighed weighing his options in his mind before deciding, what the hell, he grabbed Ivy's hand and kissed her palm before declaring, "Looks like we're making a detour."

Ivy grinned when he started the car and pulled onto the freeway, in the opposite direction of New York. Ivy turned the radio up and sang along loudly while Alex sped down the highway. Their entire time away from the mansion felt liberating in the best of ways, but now they were doing something for themselves, and as much as they loved Charles, it felt freeing.

Alex kept one hand on the wheel, the other wrapped almost all the way around Ivy's thigh, bare thanks to the short denim shorts she wore. To Ivy his touch felt electric as she leaned over briefly to nuzzle and kiss the she of his neck, before settling back into her seat so as not to distract him from driving.

Their relationship had grown exponentially during those few weeks as they had been spending more time together than ever before. Driving long hours, meeting new people, sharing rooms with only one bed. Ivy knew that the nuns at her orphanage would frown upon her thoughts and actions, but she found that she didn't really care, for her Alex was the one, even if they're nights together hadn't gone further than making out, and some heavy petting.

So far.

Alex pulled up alongside the V8 bus and Nate recognized the car, he shouted happily alerting the others in the van to their presence, and there was more cheering. Arms stretched out through windows Ivy smiled sitting up on her knees in her seat again to reach out a touch a few hands, the van sped up and Alex switched lanes so that they were following behind the van before Ivy sat back down and felt eyes on her. Alex looked her at for a moment before during back to the road, before looking back again like he couldn't help himself. In fact he told her as much before briefly leaning over and stealing a kiss then turning his full attention back onto the road. Ivy smiled and held onto his arm that was thrown all the way across her waist now pulling her to the very edge of her seat, if there wasn't a console between them there was no doubt she'd be in his seat by now.

They followed the van along the road and the coastline for about fifteen more minutes before they arrived at the promised beachside motel. The parking lot was empty save for two other convertibles parked side by side. Their friends in the van parked and Alex parked them in the next spot over, everyone hoped out of their respective vehicles and turned out the two other cars parked there were apart of the party as they hopped out too. Nate told Alex that he'd show him where they could get a room sorted out, and after a glance back at Ivy he went.

* * *

As it turns out, their new friends were 'real hippies' in the best of ways. The first thing they did after introducing themselves to the new additions of Ivy and Alex was pull out a bag of cannabis. After saying something about West Coast hospitality they offered a rolled jointed to the couple who declined, and they didn't press. Nate didn't smoke either with a few others so they had the alternative of beer handy. That the two mutants did accept.

Loud music placed from a speaker and people started to dance, if you could call the wavy movement of the arms of the bunch of them that partook in smoking, dancing. Ivy giggled at their movement's as she leaned back against Alex who was leaned against the car as they watched. She rocked against him to the beat of the music before he leaned down pressing a short kiss to the side of her neck, she sighed and leaned further into him.

"Dance with me?" he asked softly into her ear, his warm breath making her shiver.

"I don't know how." Ivy admitted looking over her shoulder at him in time to see his smirk.

"Neither do I." he said before kissing her cheek then nodding to their new friends and their exuberant dance moves, "Neither do they."

Ivy giggled and allowed him to unwrap himself for around her and pull her over to the makeshift dance floor that was the empty parking lot.

Things became a blur for a while from there, they danced with each other, uncoordinated rocking and spinning that no one could care less about because they were either too drunk or high to notice. Ivy and Alex were neither, but the euphoric freedom they felt in those moments could have rivaled any bliss their friends had.

They danced with each other, they danced with their new friends then back with each other again stealing hot little kisses as the night wore on. Slowly the party migrated down towards the beach, and then clothes started to come off.

Shoes lay forgotten in the parking lot as on the sand people stripped down to their under ware and dashed for the nearby ocean. Alex stared into Ivy's multicolored eyes as he reached back and in one motion pulled his shirt over his head. Ivy raised a brow at his challenge before crossing her arms in front of herself, gripping the bottom of her shirt and pulling it off.

Alex let his eyes drop and linger for a moment before work ducking down a d catching her lips, smoothing his hands over her back and down, then he broke the kiss and duck down dipping her over his shoulder before running for the water. Ivy giggled as she bounce along on his shoulder as they his the water and he swung her down and around in front of him.

The party continued in the water, people drunk off of drugs, alcohol and life danced and splashed even as the night wore on. It was the most fun either of them had in a long time.

"I'm so happy I met you." Ivy admitted to Alex amidst all the splashing in the after around them. Like they had been all evening the two of them remained wrapped up in each other despite the party raging on around them.

"I'm happy I met you too." Alex respond tightening his lingering grip on her hips, but before he could lean down and kiss her, one of their new friends stumbled into them, breaking their moment for the time being. But that was alright, they had all night.

* * *

A few hours later, either very early in the morning, or very late a night, who cares it was still dark. They had a left the water after it became a little too chilly for comfort. The some clothes were put back on, mostly jackets and shoes rather than full attire. Alex and Ivy weren't any different as she sat on the hood of the car wrapped up in his leather jacket while he leaned up against the car between her legs, leaning into her warmth. Their pothead friends had passed the intoxicated phase and were now munching down on the food they brought like to as going to run out. With how much they brought, highly doubtful.

"You know what would be really cool?" the girl with the Southern accent asked as she leaned half asleep out of the door to the van.

"What?" Nate asked politely breaking away from his conversation with Alex to answer the stoned girl.

"If we could freeze time." She answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world, the people in the group that were closest to her turned in amusement to hear what she had to say, "You know that of you could just 'click' it," she demonstrated by jabbing a finger in the air, "And then it'll stop, and you could say, 'this is how it's gonna be forever."

"Yeah Bonnie." Another girl said kindly from where she sat on the ground between the legs of who Ivy assumed was her boyfriend. "That'd be really cool."

Bonnie smiled sleepily, as she slunk down out if view and tried to hard to open the van door. All of a second has passed before little harmless snickers broke out amongst them at the girls drunken ramblings, "I'm not drunk enough for that." Nate joked fondly as Bonnie finally got the door open and slid out if the van crawling to her friend in the ground.

"Y'all makin' fun of me?" she asked as she lay on the ground placing her head in her friend's lap.

"No." Nate said with an exaggerated southern drawl playfully mocking Bonnie, "We just wanna click thangs. And freeze em'." Some the others joined in on the playful jibes.

"By houses together."

"Live here forever."

"Freeze time."

Bonnie smiled at the harmless jokes at her expense, "Y'all go on and laugh. But my dad thinks that there's people out there that can actually do that."

"Freeze time?" the other girl's boyfriend echoed.

"Mhm, that and a lot more." Alex and Ivy shared a look but weren't overly concerned about the intoxicated ramblings of their new friends, there wasn't any reason to suspect them as any more human than they were. "My dad told me about em', something about evolution. Made people different from humans, you know?"

"Tell you what," Nate said raising his bottle, "If I was one if them, I'd keep it to myself."

"Why?"

He scoffed taking a sip before answering, "The world don't know how to handle people with different skin color from them, different nationalities, how you think they'd react to something like that." He explained simply. And just like that the semi- deep conversations were over and mindless chitchat started up again.

"How long have you been together?"

"Officially?" Ivy answered pushing her arms under Alex's and hooking them over his shoulders, "Two months."

"That's it?" Nate asked in shock. "Jeez from the way you look at each other, I thought you'd been together for years."

"It's been quite a few months we've had together," Alex answered hooking a hand around the back of Ivy's knee, "But I knew from the second I saw her, she was special."

Nate smiled and looked at Ivy for her response, "Eh," she joked shrugging a shoulder, "It took me a few days." She said playfully.

Nate laughed as Alex tipped his head back to kiss under Ivy's chin. He snuck a hand up and tangled it in the back of her head pulling her down and leaning up further to connect their lips.

"You ready to go to bed?" He whispered against her lips pulling back.

Ivy took a deep breath before nodding, he smiled before standing up straight and then turning to help Ivy down, they bid Nate goodnight and he responded in kind before doing the same to their remaining friends.

Alex loosely entwined their fingers and grabbed their bag from the car before leading her towards their rental room.

He pushed the door open revealing their motel room, not the worst they'd ever stayed in, it looked pretty clean and the sheets looked fresh. What more could be expected of a cheap beach-side motel.

Alex dropped their bag on the small table before turning to her, "You wanna take a shower-"

She cut him off by leaning up on her toes and connecting their lips again, his arms slid around her beneath the jacket pulling her closer. She dropped her arms and slid the jacket from her arms before wrapping them around his neck. Alex broke the kiss pulling back to catch her eye.

"You sure?" he asked slowly.

Ivy nodded, "Yes." Before kissing him again then he began leading her backwards towards the bed breaking the kiss again when her knees hit and she fell backwards. Alex followed her down and crawled over her and she backed up the bed.

Once her head his the pillows he was back on top of her, slotting his body between her legs and pressing his lips to hers again, sliding his tongue along the seam of her lips before she parted for him and his body rocked against hers. He moved hot kisses down the side of her neck and onto her chest, painting the tops of her breasts with his mouth, she moaned as her back arched with his ministrations and she reached down to the top of his jeans toying with the button there before popping it open.

Alex let out a strained groan before lifting his head and catching her hands with his stopping both their movements, "Ivory, look at me." He demanded gruffly and she did, "Are you sure about this?"

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life." She assumed him leaning up and catching his lips again.

"I just thought," He spoke between kisses, "You'd want something special." He admitted.

"This is special." She told him cupping his face between her hands as he lay above her propped up on his elbows caging her in, "You're special, and that's all I need." She pecked his lips again, "I love you Alex."

"I love you too." He told her before kissing her again, reaching around behind her back and pulling at the clasp of her bra until it came loose before pulling it off her body. He stared into her eyes with nothing but love and reverence, Ivy bit her lip at his gaze before she asked.

"Have you ever?" she let the question hang but he knew what she was asking, of course he did.

"No," he answered as he shook his head, "Have you?"

"No."

He took a deep breath reaching into his the back pocket of his jeans and pulling out his wallet setting it on the bed by her head, "If it starts to hurt, tell me, and I'll stop. I don't want to hurt you."

Ivy nodded, then sighed as he lowered his head to her breast and took a nipple into his mouth, while his hands pulled off her shorts. His jeans were the next to go before he pulled her into his chest and rolled them over so she was on top. Ivy sat up to where she was straddling his hips and took a few seconds to look him over.

Ivory knew that Alex was muscular, she'd seen and felt it more than enough times to know his body quite well. But now with the knowledge of what was coming next for them, she really took him in, he wasn't overly bulky, but he had muscles, she ran he hands over his biceps before leaning down and kissing the side of his neck giving him the same amount of attention he gave her. Her fingers slid along his arms, over across his chest and down until she reached the edge of his boxers. He peeked up at him to watch his reaction when she took his length into her hand over the cloth, his jaw dropped slightly with a gasp and his head fell back. Ivy smile taking the chance to dive for his neck and continue leaving open mouthed kisses while her hand worked him up.

Alex's moaned at the feeling of her hand on him, but quickly stopped her by sitting up and knocking her hand off him and capturing her lips in another hot kiss, rolling her back underneath him. Keeping his lips on hers he ran his hand down her stomach and easily slipped inside of her panties, she broke their kiss with a gasp dropping her head down onto the pillow when he found her slick bundle of nerves. Her fingers found his hair and buried in there when he began teasing the bundle. His lips moved back to her neck, just underneath her jawline, Ivy's back arched as he moved his fingers over her the dual sensations of his lips on her neck and his fingers at her most intimate area had heat curling in her lower belly. He dipped his head down to catch her nipple again his he slid a finger inside of her, her breathless gasps and moans rose as she tightened around his fingers before she came undone, her legs tensing as she came with the sweetest sound he' ever heard in his life.

While she recovered and attempted to catch her breath Alex rid them both of what little remained of their clothes before settling over her again, he pulled a condom free from the confines of his wallet and ripping it open before rolling the latex onto himself. He pulled her legs up around his waist, with one hand, the other reached down and cupped her cheek pulling her into another kiss before he broke it leaning his forehead against hers, "I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too." She responded just as softly before he slowly slid into her warmth. Her lips parted at the unfamiliar stretch and burn, it was painful and pleasant at the same time and he slowly moved deeper. Alex lowered his head to where it rested against her collarbone, nearly trembling at how good she felt around him, fighting every single instinct that told him to just _move_.

"Are you okay?" he forced himself to ask once he'd filled her to the hilt.

She nodded, "I'm okay," she told him repeating it again for good measure before kissing him, "Move." He took her hand from his shoulder and laced their fingers together pressing her hand down onto the bed next to her head before taking her instructions and slowly starting to move inside her with short thrusts. His other hand pulled her legs up further on his hips and she tightened around him in response. Ivy had never seen Alex look so disheveled or heard his breathing so erratic, as he stared at her from under half-lidded eyes. Her own rolled into the back of her head when he shifted his hips slightly and hit a spot within her hand had her seeing stars.

Ivy wrapped both her arms around Alex's shoulders pulling him down on top of her, the tips of her nails sinking into his skin slightly when he wedged his hand between them and began rubbing her center again. The heat was back in her abdomen, and but the way his thrusts sped up slightly she could tell he wasn't far behind. Alex was all but drowning in Ivy, the real of her around him, the smell of her overwhelmed him as he grew sloppy as he neared his end. He nearly choked when he felt Ivy tense up beneath him and tighten around him, before she let out a low moan right by his ear, as her warmth coated him, that was it his hand tightened around her leg as he reached his own climax spilling himself into the condom his thrusts slowing down until he all but collapsed on top of her.

"Are you okay?" Alex managed to ask after a few long moments spent trying to catch their breath. She nodded as he slowly slid off of her and padded into the bathroom to disposed of the soiled latex, when he returned Ivy was nearly asleep only opening her eyes when he slid back into the bed beside her. She grinned tiredly moving closer to him and cuddling up to his side resting her head on his chest, Alex arm came up around her back and he pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head before they drifted off into sleep.

When Ivy woke the next morning it was to a beam of sunlight directly over her eyes. She stretched out in the bed registering the feeling of an unfamiliar ache between her thighs before remembering the reason for it. She reached her hand back to grab onto Alex only to be met with c and empty bed, glancing over her shoulder to see that the other side of the bed was indeed empty, Ivy sat up holding the sheets to her bare chest as she looked around the empty room and frowned. She didn't for one second believe that Alex had actually _left _her, but she was rather curious as to where he went.

Her questions were answered seconds later when the door clicked open and Alex walked in balancing a tray with drinks in one hand along with a bag, while the other closed the door behind him. He smiled seeing her awake and placed the food down on the table as she sat up holding the sheet to her chest. He rounded the side if the bed and sat on the edge next to her.

"Good morning." He said pressing a kiss to her head.

"Morning."

"How do you feel?"

"Amazing."

He smiled, "You ready to go home?"

"I am now."

* * *

_**Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi:**_** All in good time my friend.**

**_10868letsgo: _Thank you.**

_**Ivana Bocanegra: **_**Thanks!**

_**ZabuzasGirl: **_**Thank you, thank you. Neither can I.**

**_kira shadow wolf: _Thank you, yes she is.**

**_xenocanaan: _Thank you.**

**Apologies for the Extrememly long wait on this chapter, but never fear, I am back.**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**

**P.S. 10 points to whoever can figure out the 2 music videos that helped inspire this chapter**


	13. Chapter 13

**Yup this is a second chapter :D**

* * *

"I don't think I can do this babydoll." Alex said nervously his hands gripping the steering wheel.

They hasn't gotten back to the mansion yet because on the way back after they'd amazing detour to the California, Alex decided that before they went back to the mansion. He wanted to see his family again. Ivy supported him of course, but now that they were parked outside of his family home he was getting cold feet.

"Hey," Ivy said using the hand that was resting on the headrest behind his to scratch the back of his head. "They're gonna be so happy to see you. Trust me, you've got this."

He took a deep breath glancing up at the house before nodding, and turning the car off pulling the keys from the ignition. He climbed out and came around to Ivy's door opening it and helping her out holding her hand tight as they approached the front door. He paused and Ivy waited patiently by his side, after a moment he reached out to ring the doorbell.

There was shuffling from the other side of the door before it opened and a beautiful woman was there adjusting an earring in her ear, she opened her mouth to greet whomever was on the other side before she froze, obviously in shock.

Beside her Ivy could feel Alex trembling slightly, "Hey mom." He finally said after a long moment they spent staring at each other.

"Alex?" she whispered with a shake in her voice before she reached out placing her hand on the sides of his face like she couldn't believe he was in front of her, her eyes filled with tears slightly before she pulled him into a tight hug. Alex let go of her hand in order to hug his mother tighter, she started crying and Ivy could see Alex holding back his own tears as he hugged her tighter nearly lifting her off her feet. "Look at you." She beamed as they pulled apart and she caressed his cheeks again. "When did you get out?" she asked wiping her cheeks.

"A few months ago." He responded honestly and at her slight glare he rubbed her shoulders, "It's a long story."

She just sighed and hugged him again and as she did she noticed Ivy standing quietly by his side with a smile on her face. "Who's this beautiful girl?" she asked with another smile.

They pulled apart again and Alex had a big smile on his face that was neither identical to the one on his mother's, "Mom, this is my girlfriend Ivy. Ivy this is my mom."

"Hi," Ivy said brightly holding out her hand for a handshake, "It's so nice to meet you, Mrs. Summers."

"Well you're gorgeous," she said wiping her eyes, "Please call me Elaine." She added bypassing the handshake and pulling Ivy in for a hug. "Come inside, please come inside." She said quickly when they pulled apart and ushering them into the house. "Henry, come here!" she yelled into the house, leading them to the living room.

From the other side of the living room the glass door slid open and a man that looked exactly like Alex's future walked in whipping his hands on a towel. When he looked up he too froze at the sight of the couple in his living room, mainly on one of them.

"Son?" he breathed before he quickly crossed the room and pulled his son into an embrace. Elaine was crying again so Ivy placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, we're being rude." Elaine said wiping her eyes again.

"Its okay." Ivy said with a smile.

"Henry," she snapped breaking the discussion that the father and son were having once they broke from their embrace. "We have a guest here, this is Alex's girlfriend."

"Wow, son." He said looking up with kind smile, "Nice." He said holding out his fist for a first bump, which Alex reciprocated with an embarrassed smile.

"Nice to meet you."

"I'm Ivy."

"Welcome to our home."

* * *

Apparently they'd arrived just before lunch so they were invited outside into the backyard. Most of the lunch was spent with the family catching up while they politely asked Ivy a few questions. They were sat at a picnic table with Alex and Ivy on one side and Mr. and Mrs. Summers on the other.

"Are you like Alex?" Elaine asked kindly while the men carried on a different conversation beside them.

"I am." Ivy responded honestly, what was the point of even lying.

"What can you do?"

"I can control manipulate nature, plants and things like that."

"That's amazing. Well I love gardening so I think we're going to get along great."

"I've noticed, those lilies are absolutely beautiful." Ivy said gesturing to the bouquet resting on the side if the table.

"Thank you."

"You know what mom, I really missed your cooking." Alex told her mother.

"Well I'm not gonna let you go long without it again, every Sunday from now on. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Your cooking reminds me of the food at the home where I grew up."

"You're an orphan?"

"Of sorts, my mother wasn't all that understanding of my gifts." Ivy explained and beneath the table Alex rested a hand on her knee..

"I'm so sorry."

"Its okay, I ended up somewhere much better."

"And your father?" Henry Summers asked politely.

"I never knew him." Ivy said with a shrug.

"Well now at least it seems like you found where you belong now."

"Yeah," she agreed with a smile reaching down to cover Alex's hand, "It does."

* * *

Finally, after longer then they'd intended to be away from the mansion they were back. After almost a month and half they were walking back through the doors. Surprisingly there were ready a number of students roaming the halls when they went further into the mansion.

Almost as soon as they entered, they heard the professors voice in their head asking them to come down to his study. So that was where they went first.

When they arrived Hank and Sean were already there lounging around while the professor sat comfortably behind his desk.

"Hey!" Sean beamed, "They're back." He said jumping up from the small couch, he approached them pulling Ivy into a hug first then clapping Alex's hand and pulling him into a quick hug too.

Ivy moved deeper into the office and surprisingly was pulled into a short warm hug from Hank as well.

"How was your trip?" the professor asked kindly after Ivy hugged him as well.

"I think you already know." She teased good naturedly, "It was really fun, we met so many great people."

"And great mutants." Charles added, "A number of the students that arrived have said that you two helped convince them."

Ivy smiled as Alex came up behind her and shook Charles' hand with a smile, "Good to have you back Alex."

"Glad to be back."

"How are you parents?" Charles asked with a slight twinkle in his eye.

"Really good."

"Splendid, and now that your both here. There's something Hank and I have been waiting to show you."

"And he means it." Sean whined from behind them. "I got back a couple days ago and they won't tell me what the big surprise is."

"All in good time." Charles said as he wheeled himself from behind his desk, with a motorized wheelchair, definitely not the manual one that he had when they left, "Courtesy of Hank." Charles said answering her silent question while patting the fancy wheelchair.

Then he led them from the office with three of them following behind silently albeit slightly confused but curious as to what the professor could have to show them.

"You all remember at the CIA base, the machine that Hank developed I'm order to safely track mutants?" Charles asked as he led them into an elevator.

"Yeah," Ivy answered remembering the conversations she'd had with Hank and how proud he was of his invention before it was dropped apart by Riptipe when Shaw attacked the base, "Cerebro right?"

"Yes exactly." Charles said as the elevator stopped and opened to a blue tinted hallway. They exited he began leading them down as he continued explaining, "Well this room was built down here by my father and I've never had much use for it. We plan to eventually convert some of the spare rooms into training rooms and medical facilities. But what we have done so far, is this," he said as he rolled to a stop at the end of the hallway where there was a massive 'X' embedded into the wall. Turns out it wasn't just a part of the wall as a think blue light shot out and shined on Charles's eye. Then the X slid open to reveal a huge blue room, a single long pathway suspended through the middle. The professor rolled in and after a few seconds of gawking the others joined him.

"Welcome to the new and improved Cerebro." Charles announced happily as the doors slid closed behind them.

"Badass." Sean said in awe.

"Hank?" Ivy asked, "You built this?"

"Well I-" he began bashfully shrugging his furry blue shoulders, "Yeah." He finally said nodding.

"It's amazing."

"You guys haven't even seen the best part yet." Hank said brushing carefully past them to the controls, "Professor?" he said handing him the helmet that connected to the control panel.

Charles placed it on his head and Hank pushed a few buttons before the room lit up with white, and all around them were human like figures suspended in the air that were lit up white.

"Now with this Cerebro my mind is connected to every living being on the planet, these are the humans." He said as the figures rotated and then they were red, "These are the mutants."

"Wow." Ivy breathed as they all gazed at the massive number of mutants that were in the world.

"Its like I told you all," Charles said with pride, "Our kind, are not nearly as alone as you think."

* * *

**And that officially brings us to the end of the 'First Class' storyline. The next chapter is gonna be a bit of a time jump, and there might be like 3ish, more chapters before we get into the 'Days of Future Past' storyline. Which I already have started.**

**I have a couple surprises planned for the next few chapters so I hope you guys are ready. But still feel free to let me know what you'd like to see in DOFP.**

**As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.**


	14. Chapter 14

**_Late 1962_**

_"I know I should've called months ago," _Ivory was on a long phone call with Sister Theodosia, her first since she'd left the orphanage and the Sister had a lot to say about that, _"You wouldn't believe me if I told you what's been going on the last few months," _She toyed with the winged necklace around her neck, bringing it up to her mouth to bite on the edge,

_"I've met some amazing people, here. I think that- I think I found myself here. I'm thinking of becoming a teacher if you can believe it," _She huffed a laugh.

_"I think this might be the most spiritual place I've ever been. And I haven't even told you the best part,_" Ivy turned resting back against the wall where the phone was mounted,

_"I met someone here. He's incredible, so smart, and kind, I think you'll really like him." _She blushed thinking about Alex.

_"No, I know. I miss you all too. I'll talk to you soon. Bye."_

* * *

'Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters' was successfully bringing in students and even a few teachers the school was doing fairly well. The few teachers that Charles had hired were both mutant and mutant-friendly humans.

Charles himself was of course a professor and Hank assisted him, and the two of them together were helping to assist Ivy and the boys in one day becoming teachers as well, though predictably Ivy was much more interested after having rediscovered her love of literature.

There were only about 40 students max but Charles was overjoyed. It was the happiest any of them had seen him since Cuba. The majority of the students were under 15, and surprisingly had to beg their parents to come to the school so they could learn out to properly use their mutations. And for the most part their parents were supportive of their endeavors, but there were the few that were anti-mutant. But for their beliefs, they were quiet in their distaste for mutants because they wanted the best for their child.

* * *

"You know what," Sean said loudly tossing his hand, "Next time I'm gonna hang out with the potheads on the beach, and you guys can go to hick town."

Alex laughed, "How about next time we draw straws?"

"You got a deal," Sean joked taking a large gulp from the bottle in his hand, before passing it to his left where Hank sat as he took a drag from the joint in his other hand, blowing the smoke up where it evaporated into the night air, "You guys have no idea the people I met."

"Definitely weren't as friendly as the ones we did." Ivy joked.

"Not even close." Sean responded passionately.

The four of them were outside on one the other side of the mansion away from the rooms that had been converted into dorms for the students since it was getting rather late winter was fast approaching and the chill in the air suggested snow as well, hence the bottle they were drinking from to keep warm. They were in an almost circle pushing around the bottle, Hank sat on the far left, Sean was in the middle, then it was Ivy's seat that Alex was sitting in and she was on his lap with her feet resting in the edge of Sean's chair.

"What did the professor have you doing?" Alex asked the furry blue mutant seen as he didn't go out recruiting by his own choice, because of his appearance.

"Honestly not much," Hank responded with a shrug, "I spent a lot of time downstairs in Cerebro, he handled instructing the workers that he brought in, other than that he pretty much stayed in his room." Then he sighed, "He did bring in some guys to clean out the other rooms on our floor." Hank said after a moment of hesitation.

There was a brief moment a silence before Sean broke it, "All of them?" he asked carefully for Hank's sake knowing that he was still sensitive about Raven, but also for Ivy's sake.

"Yeah, he said something about donating them. You know Christmas and everything."

"I'm sure it will make a lot of people happy." Ivy said sincerely and that was the end of that conversation.

"What are the plans for Christmas anyways?" Sean asked tossing his hair.

"I think the professor wants to bring all the kids families to the mansion, instead of the other way around."

"That should be really nice."

"You wanna know what I'm wondering."

"Enlighten us."

"How long's it gonna be before these kids start throwing parties in these woods."

"Sean, these are actual children here, you realize that right?"

"Well they're not gonna be kids forever." He shot back. "Besides didn't you guys ever sneak out to hang out with your friends?"

Both Ivy and Alex gave him blank looks with raised eyebrows, "Right." He said nodding his head, "What about you big blue?" he turned dropping a hand onto Hank's shoulder.

"Definitely not."

"You guys are lame." Sean said with a good natured shrug, "Jeez the first time I snuck out, was after my middle school dance. Jenny Clarke changed my life." He said with a sigh.

"My middle school dance was the worst," Hank added, "Sadie Hawkins, girls choice so." He said with a shrug.

"What nobody picked you?" Ivy asked for clarity.

"It was girl's choice." He repeated.

"Those bitches."

"I know."

"That's ridiculous," Ivy scoffed, "You know what? No, I will not stand for this. C'mon get up," she said standing and moving in front of the blue scientist taking the bottle from his hand and passing it over to Sean, "On behalf of the eighth grade girls, allow me to make it up to you."

Hank looked up at her in embarrassed confusion then glanced at Alex nervously, the blonde gave him a kind smile and a nod. "I don't know how to dance." He admitted bashfully.

"Neither do I." Ivy responded with a shrug shaking her hand, Hank sighed but took her hand pulling himself to his feet.

She let out a noise a triumph and pulled him out further onto the patio, Sean turned up the radio that had been their background noise. Ivy smiled and placed her hands on Hank's shoulders, the scientist hesitated for a moment before placing his hands on her waist careful not to knick her with his claws.

"Ahem." Sean exaggerated clearing his throat and they turned to seen him toss his bud aside and flamboyantly hold out is hand to Alex, "Alexander?" he teased shaking his hand in his face, the other boy grinned and stood to his feet.

"Please do me the honor of sharing a dance with me Sean?" he asked his redhead friend bowing slightly at the waist in front of him.

"I thought you'd never ask." Sean responded playfully as he stood and after a moment of playful stumbling around they settled into an exaggerated waltz with their arms outstretched and deep lunges across the patio and around Ivy and Hank.

"You know," Ivy told Hank quietly as she rested her head on his shoulder as they kept up their slow rock that could barely count as dancing especially compared to the way their friends were bouncing around the patio, "Between you and me, I think all those girls that rejected you were idiots."

Hank huffed, "You didn't know me then Ives."

"But I know you now. And any girl would be lucky to have you."

"Thank you."

* * *

True to Hank's prediction the professor did indeed invite many of the family's of the students to the mansion for Christmas dinner, the ones that accepted the invitation were predictably those who were mutant friendly, those that weren't the kids didn't seem to mind at all, in fact it seemed like they were all to happy to not have to spend Christmas with their families and were excited to spend it with their friends at the mansion.

Ivory volunteered to make the trip to the grocery store to buy the food's for Christmas dinner and dragged Sean along with her to the packed grocery store, fitting for the many people buying their last minute Christmas dinner fixings, while Alex, Hank, Charles and some of the kids were preparing the mansion for the holiday.

"Does anyone actually know how to cook a Christmas dinner?" a grocery bag carrying Sean complained as he and Ivy exited the store after about a half an hour of waiting at the checkout line alone.

"You know that I lived with nuns for most of my childhood right? Christmas was one of our biggest celebrations," Ivy explained as she opened the trunk and help Sean load in the bags. "I was a master of the turkey by the time I was sixteen."

"Isn't Christmas like, a big no-no for most Catholics?"

"Sometimes, but it gave the kids something to look forward to you know?" she explained easily, "Plus their convent, pretty progressive for who they were."

"Really?"

"They took me in," she said with a shrug.

"Fair point, I'm driving." Sean said snatching the keys from her hand and quickly rounding the car, Ivy smiled and moved to follow but paused at the slight sensation of being watched came over her. She scanned the parking lot quickly but couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary. As she rubbed her hand over her neck and climbed into the car she dismissed it as paranoia. As Sean pulled out of the parking lot they both missed the figure starkly clad in all white watching them closely before it disappeared when a puff of black smoke appeared then disappeared just as quickly.

* * *

Magneto didn't know why he was surprised by the fact that the expensive luxury submarine wasn't the only luxury that Sebastian Shaw indulged himself in. It had been quite sometime since that day on the beach and he along with his group moved from one of Shaw's hideaways to the next. But Magneto know that, that particular movement couldn't last for much longer. He had left Shaw's dead body on that beach in Cuba, along with a government agent and allies. It didn't take long for the government to follow the trail left behind by Shaw in an attempt to track them down.

Emma Frost was good at keeping them off of their scent but she could only be pushed so far to her limit so many times. And for as much as he didn't fully trust the telepath, she was a necessary ally.

As for the other two members of Shaw's Hellfire club, he got on surprisingly well with Azazel, the red skinned mutant having his own unfortunate past with experimentation, not to mention he was exceedingly loyal in a way the Emma and Riptide were not. To his credit though the weather mutant did get along well with Raven and Angel, but he gave Magneto a wide berth after getting a bit too comfortable with the metal benders presence and commenting too boldly his opinion about Erik's dear friend.

A week or so had passed since the events of Cuba and the weather mutant had complained almost non-stop about his broken ribs courtesy of one earth manipulator, and for a good while Erik had done well to ignore him silently proud of the number Ivy did on him. It was only when Riptide vowed to get revenge on 'the little bitch' did Magneto snap. With nothing more than a wave of his hand a large knife flew from the block and was pressed tightly to the man's throat.

"You even think about touching her again, and a few broken ribs will be the least of your worries." Erik warned in a steely calm voice, Riptide nodded as best he could with the knife pressed against his throat and after a moment, Erik let it drop.

Since then the man had done well to stay far out of Magneto's way.

He heard familiar footsteps on the stairs behind him and easily brought the metal helmet into his hands and firmly onto his head by the time Emma Frost made her appearance.

"Already prepared, as always." She teased and he didn't offer the reply she was looking for. Even though his relationship with Charles had been rocky from the start, he could trust the telepaths word when he said he wouldn't go poking around inside his mind unbridled, with Emma he took no chances.

"Did you do as I asked?"

The blonde woman sighed before falling gracefully onto the couch, "I don't know why you still bother keeping tabs on your old telepath friend, and he has no interest in fighting you."

"Better to stay prepared."

"Well, just like last time." Emma sighed, "He isn't making any substantial moves that would interfere with our mission. He's too busy running a school."

"Good." Erik nodded, "Well be leaving the state soon, best that he stays busy, he won't have time to track our movements. Or alert the CIA."

Emma hummed, "Aren't you going to ask about your little friend?" Magneto couldn't deny the instant response to the teasing remark. As much as he would refuse to admit it out loud he missed Ivy dearly, though his anger did spike as well, he hadn't ordered Emma to follow up with Ivy as well, "Too bad she's gotten real cozy with one of those boys, the blonde one." It took him a moment longer than it normally would to realize what Emma was implying, since well, it was Ivy she was talking about. Luckily rather unluckily, she practically spelt it out for him, "That must really bother you."

He scoffed, "That's hardly the case."

"I don't blame you," the blonde telepath said with a shrug, "She's cute."

"Stop."

"If you were fucking her too-"

"Enough!" Erik practically roared ignoring Emma's flinch, his fists clenched by his side but he didn't turn away from the window where he was observing the night skyline, though he did meet Emma's gaze in the reflection as he warned in a low voice, "Not another word about Ivy, and never see her again unless it's under my command, understood?"

"Understood." She replied meekly.

"Good." He muttered under his breath rolling his shoulders back, "We need to discuss our next move."

* * *

"No Sean we have to let the Turkey soak for at least a day better baking it."

"Tell me again why you don't just do everything the day of?"

Ivy glared at him from across the kitchen, "Have you ever watched your mom cook Christmas dinner?"

He snorted, "No. I played video games."

"Then you don't know how much of it is mostly prep." She scoffed closing the fridge just as Hank came into the kitchen looking nervous.

"Hey, we thought we heard you guys come home." He breathed out.

"Yeah hasn't been too long." Sean responded.

"I'm trying to convince Sean to help me cook Christmas dinner."

"It's not working."

"I'm wearing him down," Ivy teased, "Where is everyone we haven't seen you guys or the kids since we got back."

"Yeah, all the kids are in the sitting room decorating the tree, but Ivy uh," he took a deep breath ringing his hands together, "Your mother's here."

Ivy froze, "What?"

"She came while you guys were out," he explained and she shared a look with Sean before they left the kitchen, Hank quickly falling into step with them, "I wasn't sure who she was at first, then she started asking about you and Alex stepped in, the professor intervened before he could tell her anything and they've been in his study waiting for you guys to get back."

Hank finished just as they came to a stop outside of the professor's study, Ivy took a deep breath and pushed the doors open, the scene inside was one Ivy never thought she'd see. Charles was seated behind his desk as usual a polite yet tense smile on his face as he spoke to her mother, Alex was leaning against the wall, an open glare on his face.

When they entered Ivory's mother immediately stood and turned to face them and Alex looked up but didn't move.

"Ivory."

"What are you doing here momma?" Ivy questioned sparring an icy glance over the woman who gave birth to her, she looked just as Ivy remembered. Perhaps a bit more disheveled, as her shifty eyes couldn't stay focused.

"We should leave," Sean said already turning back towards the door.

"No you stay," Ivory told him grabbing his hand without looking back, "You too." She snapped at Hank who had also tried to creep back out the door. "This won't be long."

"Ivory-Anne." Her mother tried again.

"Don't call me that." Ivy snapped again, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you."

"Why? You made it pretty damn clear all those years ago wanted nothing to do with me, or my kind." At her mother's silence and shifty glances around the room filled with mutants, especially the furry scientist Ivy spoke again, "How'd you know where I was?"

"A couple around the neighborhood were talking about their kid going to this special school in New York, they weren't very clear on the details but I figured I'd give it a shot. Stop by, say hi."

"Hi." Ivy said blankly.

"You've grown up so much."

Ivy raised a brow, "Yeah, I was seven when you kicked me out remember?"

"Ivory please, I'm trying to-"

"Trying to what? Make amends? What for? Why now?"

"I just-" she looked around her eyes staying on Charles for a moment who still sat behind his desk his head in his hands as he watched the confrontation with a concerned frown on his face, "I need money."

She scoffed, looking her mother over, "I can't believe you."

"It's been so hard Ivory, you don't know what it was like for me when you left."

"You mean when you kicked me out."

"I had cops coming to my house looking for you for what you did. I was so scared."

"And you don't think I was scared," by this point both women were yelling, "No of course you don't because all you ever think of is yourself."

"You owe me, I gave you life. I raised you. You should be thankful-"

"You didn't raise me-"

"That I forgave you for making your father leave-"

"You always blamed me for dad leaving-"

"It was your fault, he never wanted a child and then you were born as one of them." She spat, "I just wanted a normal daughter."

"And I wanted a mother!" Ivory roared her pupils expanding slightly in her eyes, while the others in the room had been watching the confrontation with worry and intrigue it turned to slight fear when after Ivy's outburst it felt as if the very foundation of the school rocked slightly. Neither woman seemed to notice to busy screaming at each other but the guys did and they looked at the professor with slightly wide eyes and he only raised a calm hand keeping them focused on the argument at hand. "But all I got was a drunken bitch."

Her mother gasped and raised her hand to slap her daughter but Hank grabbed her wrist before she could make contact, she struggled against the blue scientist still spewing insults at her daughter and so Hank wouldn't accidently hurt the woman Sean grabbed her other arm, while Alex grabbed Ivy in his arms, "I don't even know where you came from, you're just so damn evil!"

"I am my mother's daughter." Ivy sneered as Charles, ever the pacifist wheeled his was in between them.

"I think that's quite enough," he said loudly, "Ivy, Ivory please." He said to his friend who stopped struggling in her boyfriend's arms, "Ms. McCambridge, I think it's best if you leave."

"Happily," She snapped roughly shoving Sean off of her, "Don't even think about crawling back to me when this place crashes and burns."

"Fuck you." Ivy spat as her mother made another move towards her but Hank blocked her path, so the woman huffed and finally turned to make her exit. "Charles." Ivy said after a moment of tense silence in the study.

"Are you alright dear?" the professor asked immediately concern glinting in his blue eyes as he took her hand.

"That woman doesn't deserve to have me in her life," She told the telepath plainly and he understood what she meant right away, "Any part of me." She clarified.

"Are you sure? Charles asked carefully.

Ivy nodded, "I'm sure."

"Very well." The man said squeezing her hand once before releasing it, "Hank?" he called for the scientist nodding his head towards the door and the blue man went with him after sparing an apologetic glance at Ivy and she nodded her thanks.

"I'm gonna go check on the kids." Sean said taking his leave as well after placing his hand in Ivy's shoulder in support.

* * *

"Are you okay?" Alex asked his girlfriend carefully after the fight in Charles' study only moments again she was completely silent as she took his hand and dragged him upstairs into his room that they now shared.

"I'm fine," Ivy snapped, peeling off the layers of clothing she'd worn for her trip to the store, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem a little tense." He explained carefully.

"The woman never gave a shit about me since I was born and she's gonna track me down in my new life to ask me for money." She scoffed sitting on the bed to pull her boots off, "The nerve."

"Anything I can do to help?" he offered with shrug and he didn't expect her to respond so straight forward, "What?" he blinked.

"Take off, your shirt." She repeated slowly and he paused to gauge whether or not she was serious and once he saw that she was he did as asked pulling off the long sleeve shirt he'd been wearing. There was a hint of a smile on her face before she leaned in and connected their lips pushing him back against the door he'd been leaning against as she tilted her head, sliding her tongue into his mouth as her hands moved down and attempted to undo his pants.

"Wait, Babydoll, wait," he said grabbing her hands and leaning her forehead against hers for a moment, "Now? Are you sure? Sure you don't want to talk about what happened?"

Ivy leaned back slightly to catch his eye, "You wanna talk about my deadbeat mother, or do you wanna have sex?" she asked with a slight tease at the end of her question.

Alex's eyes widened slightly at her bluntness and he seemed to really contemplate for a brief moment before nodding to himself and kissing her again, spinning them so that she was pressed up against the door, they broke apart long enough for Alex to rid Ivy of her own long sleeved short before he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked them the short distance to the bed.

* * *

Some time later the two of them were catching their breaths laying in bed, Ivy rested her head on his chest, and Alex had his arm wrapped around her back, his fingers playing with the ends of her hair. It wasn't long before he felt the warm tears roll down his bare chest. Alex sighed hugging her closer.

"Was I that bad?" he joked and he felt her smile even as she pinched his side, "You ready to talk?"

"I should hate her right?" Ivy asked rhetorically after a few moments of silence, "I mean I finally had a good thing going for first time in a long time. She just had to come and ruin it."

"Hey," Alex cut in rolling them over so that he laid on top of her and cradled her in his arms, "She didn't ruin a damn thing, we all know how amazing you are. We all still love you, even if your mom's a bitch."

Ivy smiled raising her head to kiss him, "I love you too."

"I'm not supposed to tell you this yet, but Charles and I called Mother Mary's." he said softly and she stared at him in slight confusion. "They're coming down for Christmas."

"Really?" she asked with a large smile sitting up as Alex shifted to the side to make room but kept an arm around her.

"Yeah. My parents and coming down, and so are Sean's, all the kids. You should have your family here too."

"My family is here," Ivy told him with a smile which Alex returned before bringing a hand up to the side of her neck and pulling her into another gentle kiss. "Promise me you won't leave?" she whispered lowering her head.

"I promise." Alex responded instantly rubbing his thumb along her cheek.

"Everyone always leaves."

"Not me," Alex said simply before kissing her again, tilting her head up so he could look her I'm the eye, "Marry me?"

* * *

**Would you guys believe that I wrote the last two words of this chapter before I wrote anything else?**

**_Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi: _Hippity hoppity.**

**_ZabuzasGirl: _Thank you!**

**_Ivana Bocanegra: _Thanks babes, I'll admit some of your comments didn't help my writer's block, but I know you weren't being intentionally malicious. **

**Y'all I'm not even American, and I now know more about the Americans involvement in the Vietnam War than I ever intended too.**

**This chapter went a little bit of everywhere but now I hope you get a feel of where everyone is and what's going on. Also I really wanted to close Ivy's relationship with her mother once and for all. Y'all can probably guess what the next time jump is gonna be, so feel free to tell me what you'd like to see. Also what you want to see happen in between now and Days of Future Past, still taking suggestions.**

**As always let me know what you think, and what you'd like to see in the future.**

**You guys remember a couple chapters ago when I asked you who your faceclaim for Ivy was, like always feel free at imagine her anyway you'd like but for writing purposes I'll be using Madison Beer as inspiration.**


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